Monsters vs Aliens: Legend of the Snow Queen
by Wordmangler
Summary: When word reaches Area 52 that a snow monster has appeared in the tiny kingdom of Arendelle, Susan and the other monsters are mobilized to help track her down. Seen as monsters by the rest of humanity, Ginormica and the Snow Queen discover that they have much in common, and each can help the other deal with her power and the fear it inspires in others.
1. Coronation Day

**Quick Introduction** : While this is a crossover, and as such will probably be read by a grand total of three people, myself included, I do want to make things as easy as possible for any readers who might not be familiar with _Monsters vs. Aliens_ , or _Frozen_ , for that matter (assuming there are any of the latter). So the first chapter will set up some background for both and reveal the problem….

Note for any readers of my MVA novels: this story does not (necessarily) take place in that continuity, but follows the movie canon timeline. Otherwise _Frozen_ fans in the crossover section would not only have to know what MVA was all about, but read my stories into the bargain. While I would personally appreciate that, I wouldn't expect it, so this story requires no knowledge of the characters beyond the movie.

Note for any _Frozen_ fans who may have stumbled across this by mistake. My take on MVA is to treat the situation completely seriously. There are still a few jokes and funny and/or silly bits, but toned down greatly from the movie. So don't expect too much silly comedy. And do expect deep and introverted analysis of what it means to be a family, and how to deal with being feared as a monster. At least that's the idea.

Oh, and I do NOT (times a million) consider the Nickelodeon MVA series canon. There are no other aliens, and Susan most definitely will **_never_** be shrinking. As her ex-fiancé Derek might say, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever….

* * *

 **1\. Coronation Day**

"Good evening. I'm Jane Johnson, and this is a GNN special report on the recent attempted alien invasion of Earth. The past week has seen some of the most incredible events in human history when an alien invader, Gallaxhar, attempted to take over the Earth. He was stopped by some very unique creatures, who had been kept secret from the entire human race in the isolated deserts of northern Nevada, far from the nearest city, in a military site so secret the very mention of its real name is a Federal offence.

"Known only as 'Area 52,' it was brought to international prominence just recently when the strange monsters it had imprisoned were the only things standing between the invading alien force and the total conquest of Earth. Led by US Army General W. R. Monger, a team of fantastical monsters that included the massive 350-foot moth known as Insectosaurus, the insect-headed mutant mad scientist, Dr Cockroach, the seven-and-a-half foot green scaled ape-like being known as the Missing Link, the indestructible gelatinous mass technically known as Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate, or 'Bob' for short, and of course the 49'11" giantess Susan 'Ginormica' Murphy, managed to destroy Gallaxhar's ship and save the entire planet. Just who are these strange creatures, and what are their secrets? We have with us in the studio Professor Elias D'Isgney, who—"

"Oh, turn that off," Susan said, entering the new Monster Force Command Centre and glaring down at the television from her nearly fifty-foot height. "I mean, come on! I'm sick of all the stuff on us. Isn't there anything more interesting on the news?"

"Hey, we just saved the world," Link said. "And I for one could do with the ego-boost. Anyway, it's nearly midnight. Why aren't you asleep?"

"Jet-lag, after we stopped that massive mutant French snail Escargantua," Susan said with a giant-sized shrug. "I'm still stuck on European time."

"Yeah, that must suck. Not me though—I can sleep any time," Link smirked.

"We noticed on the flight back," Cockroach told him. "Your snores made it quite evident."

"Hey, not my fault if I have sleep ap… ap… aptitude..."

"Apnea," Cockroach said dryly. "For the second time."

Link grunted an acknowledgement. "Knew there was a 'p' in there somewhere."

"Well, you certainly do have sleep aptitude," Susan said with a laugh. "And attitude. Now come on, there's something I want to watch."

"What?"

"Turn to MSABC," Susan told him, settling down on her huge couch.

The fish-ape did so, and the giant television screen showed an image of a news studio, and in the insert, the portrait of a beautiful young woman with ice-blue eyes and pale blonde hair.

"Hey, who's the chick?" Link asked. "She's hot."

"Hush," Susan said. "I want to see this. Since I'm awake anyway, I might as well."

"Good evening and welcome," the anchor was saying. "I'm Will Bierson, and you're watching the Datenightline special on the Royal Coronation. If you're just joining us, Queen Elsa II of the tiny Scandinavian kingdom of Arendelle is about to be formally crowned in a ceremony unchanged for over five hundred years. Isn't that amazing, Rachel?"

"It sure is, Will!" the other anchor said with a perky, plastered-on grin. "Despite its small size and remoteness, Arendelle has managed to survive as an independent state for all this time. Most Americans probably first heard about this tiny nation after the tragic crash of Arendelle Airways Flight 001, which killed King Valter VI and his lovely wife, Queen Mary, three years ago."

"Yes, we remember," Bierson said. "The young Princess Elsa was suddenly thrust onto the throne at only eighteen. However, actual rule of the kingdom was carried out by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, acting as regents."

"So what's the significance of today, Will?" Rachel asked.

"Well, Rachel, Arendelle is one of the few remaining monarchies where the king—or queen in this case—actually takes a hands-on, active part in ruling. Once she comes of age, and is formally crowned, Queen Elsa will be leading this small but proud country in deed as well as in name."

"You keep saying it's small. Just how small is Arendelle, Will?"

"Let's take a look at this map here. This is Europe, and this is Scandinavia—oops, that's Scotland. This is Scandinavia, and this long narrow country is Norway. Arendelle is this small part up here, to the north. It covers the western half of the Lofoten archipelago, projecting out into the North Sea, making it a bit smaller than Bahrain, but with only twenty thousand people. Being way up here means it's actually north of the Arctic Circle."

"Brrr!" Rachel said with a light laugh. "Sounds chilly!"

"Now that's the interesting thing," Bierson told her. "Thanks to the warm water brought up by the Gulf Stream, it's actually remarkably temperate for its latitude. It's also sited right by one of the world's richest fishing grounds, especially cod, which is what drew the first Viking settlers and helped sustain the kingdom. The wealth from cod, and its isolation, enabled it to hold off the Norwegians until the 1738 Treaty of Vargfót, when King Christian VI of Denmark and Norway guaranteed them their perpetual independence. And today, in addition to cod, it has a small but thriving tourist industry, thanks to its dramatic and largely untouched natural landscapes, and the small towns that still retain an almost medieval air. Not to mention the fact that it's one of the best places in the world to see the fabled Northern Lights. It is an ancient land, full of mystery."

"Talking of mystery, Will, Queen Elsa herself is a bit of one. She's almost never been seen outside the castle. Word is that she's a recluse, and avoids public functions as much as possible."

"Well, she's got a doozy today, Rachel. The biggest ever—her official coronation as queen regnant. When she finally steps out from behind the shadow of her ministers to rule directly."

"Isn't there an interesting legend about the queens of Arendelle?"

"Indeed there is, Rachel. There's an old legend that they can control the winter storms, and that's why no foreign army or navy has ever managed to conquer Arendelle. Some scholars say that Hans Christian Andersen based his famous fairy tale, The Snow Queen, on this legend. In fact, one title of the queens of Arendelle is _Snødronningen_ , or "Snow Queen," as a warning to potential invaders."

"In other words, don't mess with us!" Rachel laughed. "So the young queen turns twenty-one today, does she?"

"She does," Bierson agreed. "Well, tomorrow from our perspective, as we're nine hours behind here in LA. But the ceremony is going to be carried live worldwide, with the formal crowning starting at ten a.m. in Arendelle, and that makes for a one a.m. broadcast here."

"Wow, I hope none of our royalty-obsessed viewers are going to miss too much sleep."

"Don't worry," Susan muttered to the TV, sipping a huge mug of tea. "I have the day off tomorrow."

"At least they're going to have good weather for it," Rachel was saying. "At this time of year, the sun never sets."

"Really? Never?" Bierson asked in a rather fake-sounding tone.

"That's right, Will, never. Because they're so far north, above the Arctic Circle, in summer it never gets dark. They call it the Land of the Midnight Sun."

"Wow, that's freaky," Susan said. "I'd love to see that."

"Perhaps you will one day, my dear," Cockroach said, joining her.

"You gonna watch too, Doc?"

"I thought I might keep you company," he told her, giving her a quick glance with his huge amber eyes. "If you'll have my company, of course."

"I'd love to," Susan said, smiling down at him. She could barely remember how scared she had been when she had first seen him, and had tried to kill him with her spoon, thinking he was just a cockroach. That was before she realized what had happened to her, that she been transformed into a tremendously tall and powerful giantess. Now he was her monster mentor, and one of her closest friends.

"Have you ever been to Arendelle?" Susan asked.

Cockroach shook his head, his antennae waving gently. "No, I never made it to Scandinavia. I've never been much of a one for dramatic wild scenery or snow. I always preferred my laboratory."

"How come it's such a small country?" Susan asked.

"Europe has a number of these micro-states," Cockroach explained. "Andorra, Lichtenstein, San Marino, Monaco…."

"England," Link added, and got a glare from Cockroach in return.

"In general, they are the last few remnants of the various principalities and duchies of Europe," the mad scientist explained. "Thanks to various wars and treaties and alliances over the past millennium, some have managed to survive."

"Why don't they just get taken over?" Link asked. "I would, if I were Norway."

"Because it wouldn't be nice," Susan told him firmly.

"Exactly, my dear," Cockroach said. "It would be like the United States deciding to annex one of the tiny nations in the Caribbean like St Kitts and Nevis. These smaller nations are no threat, militarily or economically, and these days are often tax havens as well."

"I like the idea," Susan said. "Tiny little pocket countries. They're so cute. Like itty-bitty—oh, wait, something's happening. Look."

"We're now going live to our reporter Linda, who is standing in the courtyard of Arendelle's ancient castle in the capital city of Reine. Over to you, Linda," Bierson said.

"Thanks, Will. Linda Bergstrom here, reporting for MSABC. It's a beautiful day here in the endless summer sun of northern Scandinavia, and… and wait, I'm getting a report…. Yes, the doors are opening, and… and there she is! We have our first glimpse of the queen," Linda said in a hushed voice. "She is wearing a long teal or turquoise dress with traditional rosemaling patterns, a fitted sweetheart bodice with bronze lacing over rich black velvet sleeves and collar, and a long magenta cape. A very long cape, in fact."

"Teal and magenta being the official colours of Arendelle, of course," Bierson explained. "This is the same pattern of dress that queens of Arendelle have been crowned in for the past three hundred years."

"Hey, is that the queen?" Link asked, pointing at the screen.

"I guess so," Susan said. "Wow, I love that dress! Look at it!"

"It's okay," Link said with a shrug. "I prefer bikinis."

"Only because you liked to terrorize beach girls after you escaped from the lab in Florida where they thawed you. You can't get crowned in a bikini! Now shut up and let me watch!" Susan shot, then turned her attention to the figure on the screen again. "Wow, that's such a gorgeous outfit…." She looked down at her charcoal grey jumpsuit uniform, and sighed. "Sometime I wish I could wear clothes like that again. It would be nice to be able to dress a little more, I dunno…. Like a girl, not a soldier."

"I dunno why you want to bother with clothes at all," Link said. "I don't. Pure green scales all the way, baby."

Susan laughed. "You don't count—you're like a… a sort of dinosaur or something."

"I could get upset at that," Link said, stretching, "but beats having to moan about fashion all the time. Well, apart from bikinis. I really like bikinis."

"You'd look pretty strange in a bikini," Cockroach noted, his mouth curving in a barely-concealed smirk.

Link glared at him. "Very funny, ha ha not."

"Hush, guys," Susan said. "Look, she's heading to the castle chapel!"

"That's really weird music," Link muttered as the television speakers filled the room with an alien, unworldly chant in male voices. "Sounds sort of African. You sure you have the right coronation?"

Susan laughed. "Yeah, pretty sure that isn't Africa."

"It's traditional music of the Sami people," Cockroach explained, a moment before the television commentator did so as well. "As I said," he added smugly.

"I didn't doubt you," Susan said, giving him a smile. "It sounds cool, anyway. Really ancient."

"It's an ancient musical form called 'yoiking,'" Cockroach added, and Link guffawed.

"Yoiking? Yikes!"

"Will you knock it off? She's about to enter the chapel," Susan said. "Oh, she's so beautiful…."

"Queen Elsa is now entering the Royal Chapel of St Olav, the patron saint of Arendelle," Linda said in a hushed voice. "While only invited guests are permitted into this ancient wooden structure, we are getting a live feed from the camera inside. Are you seeing this?"

"We certainly are, Linda," Bierson said. "There's the queen, walking slowly up the aisle to the throne, which has been moved here for the ceremony."

"This throne dates back to the 19th century," Linda added. "Made of walnut and chestnut, it was a gift from the Kingdom of the Southern Isles, now part of Denmark, in the mid-1800s to Queen Elsa I, the present queen's great-great-great…uh… great grandmother. I think that's the right number of 'greats'…."

"There are legends about her, that's for sure," Bierson chimed in. " _Elsa den Mektige_ , Elsa the Great, they call her. Under her reign, Arendelle became a major shipping and trading nation, despite its small size."

"Being unaffected by the Napoleonic Wars at the start of the century certainly helped," Cockroach added as an aside to Susan.

"Look," Linda was saying, "the Archbishop of Arendelle is about to hand her the regalia. The sceptre, which has been a symbol of royal power since the days of the Egyptian pharaohs, and the orb, the symbol of worldly domination."

"Interestingly," Bierson noted, "most royal orbs are traditionally topped with a cross, symbolizing the power of Christ over earthly domains, but the Arendelle one is topped with a crocus, the state flower. This is because in a cold, wintery place like this, the way the crocus blooms while snow still lies on the ground makes it a symbol of hope and rebirth."

"That same crocus also tops the sceptre, I note," Rachel added. "Unlike the British Crown Jewels, these don't have many stones, with just a few humble sapphires and turquoises. This is a small, humble kingdom, after all. Ostentatious display is frowned on, I believe."

"There seems to be a slight hold-up," Linda added. "We can't quite see what is going on, as the queen has her back to us, but… ah, that was it. She was removing her gloves."

"I guess I'd forget something like that, too," Bierson said. "Even from here you can see how nervous she is."

"The biggest day of her young life," Linda said. "And with the loss of her parents, it can't have been easy preparing for this."

"She does have her sister, Princess Anna," Rachel added. "You can see her there, just down to the right of the screen. In the green off-the-shoulder dress, and with strawberry blonde hair."

"Oh yes, Princess Anna is a very familiar figure in the European elite," Linda said. "As outgoing and gregarious as her sister is retiring and aloof, she seems to spend half her time on the beaches of Monaco or other tropical paradises."

"Wasn't she rumoured to be dating Prince William at one stage?" Bierson asked.

"No, I believe that might have been Prince Harry," Rachel said. "At any rate, it was no more than gossip, based on a photograph of them exchanging a quick kiss."

"Pity. A royal wedding would be nice too," Bierson said. "Queen Elsa herself has never been seen in the company of another man, or at least not in that sense. There are persistent rumours that she's actually a lesbian, which have never been officially commented on."

"Or denied," Linda added.

"Look, they're about to officially crown her," Rachel said, as the screen showed the young queen kneeling before the priest, her hands clasped together.

"The archbishop is holding it up, and oooh look at it sparkle!" Linda gasped. "That's the Tiara of Arendelle, the traditional headgear worn by its queens."

"Not a crown, Linda?"

"The queens have always preferred these lighter tiaras, it seems. And look! There it goes, on her platinum blonde locks! Listen to the crowd! You can hear them roar their approval! Screens have been set up in the plaza outside the castle gates, and thousands of people have gathered! Even from here it's deafening!"

"It certainly shows the people love their queen," Rachel commented.

"Kinda reminds me of the reaction we got in Paris after stopping that snail," Susan noted. "When we walked down the Champs-Elysees in that parade the French put on for us."

"Only they didn't need monitors to see you," Link joked. "Just how much taller than the Eiffel Tower are you again?"

"I am not taller than the Eiffel Tower!" Susan snorted. "I'm a sweet, petite girl! Not even fifty feet tall!" She sighed, and gave him a quick smile. "Okay, maybe I'm not all that petite. But I can still be sweet."

"Of course you can, my dear," Cockroach assured her. "Whatever your size."

"And now the queen has made her way to the balcony over the front doors to the castle," Rachel commented. "Along with her sister, and her uncle, the Duke of Ramberg, who as the Prime Minister has been acting as regent during her minority, and other members of the small royal family."

"Yes, we see her waving shyly to the gathered crowds," Linda added breathlessly into her microphone. "And we can also see some of the more important guests, including some of the royal families of Europe. Over there to the right, the beautiful girl with the short brown hair is the queen's cousin Valieria Nella von Rapunzel, Crown Princess of Corona, and her beloved stepmother Queen Gothel, together with her fiancé Lord Eugene."

"Yes, I remember the story of how they met," Rachel said. "Quite the tangled affair. Who's that handsome chap to the left?"

"That's Prince Hans, one of the minor members of the Danish royal family. The tabloids love to pair him up with Princess Anna, although the royal household has denied any relationship."

"And doesn't Princess Anna look charming!" Rachel exclaimed. "Look at her, laughing and waving."

"There's no mistaking that hair," Linda agreed. "Not with its distinctive white streak. In Scandinavian tradition, a white streak like that means you've been blessed by the trolls."

"You'd think she might dye it," Rachel suggested. "I'm sure I would."

"Perhaps she just doesn't want to," Susan muttered in annoyance. "Personally, I think it looks pretty cool. Oh dear. Look, there they go, into the castle. Guess it's over."

"Yeah, the ball's not being broadcast," Link said as the camera cut back to the studio. "Ah well, I'm off to bed."

"I might just stay and watch the wrap-up," Susan said, suppressing a slight yawn.

"I shall leave you to it, my dear," Cockroach said, nodding towards her. "I have a few experiments that need my attention."

"See you," Susan said, giving him a little wave and smile. She watched as he headed off, and then returned her gaze to the screen, which was showing a replay of the queen and princess talking with each other. "It must be wonderful to be a princess," she said softly. She watched the queen whisper something into the princess's ear, and the princess giggling in response, and sighed. "Hell, I'd even settle for having a sister…."

* * *

A couple of days later, Susan was just finishing her oatmeal when she was startled by a loud voice.

"All right, monsters, listen up!"

"General?" Susan turned her head in surprise as General Monger flew in on his jetpack. He landed by the central mission control panel in the Monster Force command centre as it finished rising out of the floor of the central elevated platform.

Looking puzzled, the nearly fifty-foot giantess stood up and moved over to the control panel, where the other monsters were also gathering.

"What is it this time, General?" Dr Cockroach asked, his huge mutated cockroach eyes wide with anticipation. "Zombies? Giant ants? Alien probes?" With an effort, he repressed a mad cackle as Monger glared at him.

"None of the above!" the general barked.

"What about the below?" the indestructible gelatinous blob asked.

"Let the dude talk, Bob," the Missing Link growled, glaring at the blue mass from his over seven feet of height.

"That's 'General', Link," Susan said with a smile. "Not 'dude'."

"Damn right it is," Monger said. "Now pay attention you lot! We have a major mission ahead of us! We're off to Europe again!"

"Wonderful!" Susan exclaimed. "Where this time? Spain? Prague?"

"London? Britain?" Cockroach asked. "Ah, I do so yearn to see the rolling green hills of my homeland again…."

"Why can't it ever be Hawaii?" Link groused. "I mean, it's summer now. And just for once, I'd like to go somewhere warm, with beaches. A drink in my hand, my butt up against the burning sand. Prob'ly getting gorgeously tanned. Oh, and loads of bikini babes to freak out. Oh yeah…."

"So where is it, General?" Susan asked, noticing steam slowly percolating out of Monger's ears.

"A country called Arendelle," the general said, his face gradually returning to its normal shade.

"Arendelle!" Susan gasped. "What happened?"

"Look at this," Monger said, pulling up a satellite photo of the region. He zoomed in to the northern half of Norway, then closer and closer, the resolution of the military spy satellite bringing out the details of every house and road.

Susan gasped. The entire country was blanketed in a thick layer of snow. Almost nothing was recognisable.

"Hey, what happened to summer?" Bob asked.

"Exactly!" Monger said. "Arendelle has been stricken by a freak unseasonable weather event."

"And I assume this isn't natural," Cockroach said. "Or you wouldn't be mobilizing us."

Monger nodded, then changed the photo. "This is footage from the night of the coronation ball. Look at these images here."

"What is that?" Susan asked, bending down to look more closely.

"These are infra-red heat images of the town of Reine taken that night. White is warmest, then red, yellow, green; and purple, blue and black are the coldest. You see here how all the streets are lined with warm colours, and this area here, the old castle, is glowing white with warmth."

"They probably don't have very good insulation in that old thing," Cockroach commented.

"Do you mind? I'm giving a briefing here," Monger snarled. "Good. Now watch this screen."

Monger flipped through a series of images. Starting with the castle, a dark blue-purple patch of extreme cold grew and spread, heading into the courtyard, then striking out directly across the small harbour. The blue and purple colours of cold trailed behind, spreading out like a wake, and by the final image almost the entire town was shades of blue.

"That's impossible—it's not natural!" Cockroach gasped. "What happened?"

"That is what we are going to find out," Monger told him. "We did get one report, sent before the ice crippled communications. Listen."

The audio was hard to make out, rather garbled and static-filled, but one term kept being repeated again and again: "Snødronningen! Snødronningen! Hun vender tilbake!"

"What does that mean?" Susan asked, looking confused.

Cockroach's antennae stiffed and grew still. "The Snow Queen! The Snow Queen!" he breathed. "She returns!"

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES:**

At the end of the movie Monsters vs. Aliens the monsters all fly off to Paris to fight a giant mutated snail. In my own fanfiction I have moved this incident to a bit later, and this story can be read as taking place in either continuity, but as this is a cross-over I will not reference anything that requires a knowledge of my own stories. I also try and explain who these people are, very quickly, in case Frozen fans reading this from curiosity have forgotten the movie.

Loads of notes for this chapter….

1\. Elias D'Isgney is taken from Walter Elias Disney—"D'Isgney" being the original French form of the name, apparently.

2\. MSABC, Datenightline, and Will Bierson are completely fictional and any resemblance to real news stations or media personalities is, for legal purposes, entirely in your head. Rachel and Linda are completely made up, just random names.

3\. Instead of a shipwreck, I've changed it to a plane crash killing her parents. King Valter is named after Walter Disney, as the film king resembles a young Walt quite closely. Valter is the Norwegian equivalent. I realize now that the king and queen have specific names in the film, but then this isn't set then, and too many similar names would stretch belief a little too much….

4\. If you're interested, you can check out the Lofoten peninsula and area on Wikipedia and Google Maps. It's a real place, one of two major candidates I have in mind for the location of Arendelle (which is clearly nowhere near the real Arendel). My statements about the importance of the fishing industry, tourism, and the Northern Lights are all accurate. There is however no such thing as the 1738 Treaty of Vargfót, as of course there is no such thing as the Kingdom of Arendelle and hence no need for a treaty ensuring its independence. However King Christian VI was indeed king of Denmark and Norway at that time. And Vargfót is a real place.

5\. St Kitts and Nevis is both a shout-out to a regular reader of my ramblings and skilled author on this site, and it's the smallest nation in the Western Hemisphere, so makes sense to use in this context.

6\. Reine is a real town (village, really) in the Loften archipelago, and is apparently considered one of the most beautiful villages in Arendelle—er, I mean Norway. Since the name sounds like "reign" and Reine is French for Queen, I have decided to use this as the name of the city, and Arendelle as the name of the kingdom. Photos of Reine show a setting very similar to what is shown in the film as well, with steep mountains rising from the sea.

7\. Yoiking is the name of the chanting—I assume most Frozen fans know that already. When I first heard it I was wondering if I wasn't watching the wrong film by mistake, as it sounded so African….

8\. St Olaf is actually the patron saint of Norway. He was once a king there, and possibly not the nicest ruler ever. But he got a historical upgrade….

9\. I figured that the Southern Isles bent over backwards to apologize for Hans's actions in the film, and as part of their gifts, might have included a new throne.

10\. This Princess Anna is not confined to the castle. I view that "doors shut" thing as a metaphor, though with some basis in reality: things are much quieter, and the sisterly relationship is badly damaged. But it's not a prison. And that doesn't mean she doesn't miss playing with her sister, of course. This is not, however, a straightforward modern retelling of Frozen—I am just using that as a starting-point to examine the themes I want to look at….

11\. Ramberg is a town in Lofoten. There is no duke there, however.

12\. Valierianella ( _Valerianella locusta_ ) is the scientific name for rapunzel, which is actually an edible leaf vegetable: the name in the fairy tale came about as that was the vegetable the mother originally craved so much. And I'm one of those who believes that Gothel did, despite herself, feel affection and maybe even love for Rapunzel, in her own twisted way. She certainly did a fantastic job of raising her. So in this story, a younger Gothel married the king and raised his daughter as her own after the queen died in childbirth… or maybe just got a divorce.

13\. I really hope my Norwegian is correct. I checked, and the "Snow Queen" is correct, and I hope the "Hun har returnert" is too. Corrections are welcome.

 **EDIT (3-1-16):** Thanks to PascalDragon's review, I realised I got the monarch's names muddled. This has been corrected. (Reviews, as of this writing, are not showing up on the main site, nor can I reply directly. Most annoying.)

 **ＥＤＩＴ 2 (8-1-16):** Thanks to Norwegian native speaker **Cyries** , I have amended the Norwegian at the end to improve the nuance. Thanks to Cyries' expert advice, I have also changed some in the upcoming chapter, and amended Anna's full name.

 **EDIT 3 (13-4-16):** How did I manage to miss the wrong spelling (tense) of "lead" as in "General Monger lead"? A very sloppy error indeed...


	2. The Princess and the Giantess

**2\. The Princess and the Giantess**

"I hope the Americans arrive soon," Princess Anna grumbled, holding out her hands to one of the large fireplaces in the castle. A servant quickly added another large log, and soon the flames were blazing higher than ever.

"Commander Sorensen said they would be here within the hour," the Duke of Ramberg told her. He took her hand, and looked into her deep blue-green eyes. "We'll find your sister, and stop this disaster. Whatever it takes. I promise."

Anna let him hold her hand for a brief moment, then took it away. "I wish I could just go after her, Uncle Mustela. I feel so… so useless."

"You can't just rush into the mountains, not when there's a blizzard like this. Even the most experienced mountain men wouldn't dare, and you're just a princess."

"Just a princess?" Anna shot back, raising an eyebrow.

"In this case, yes, Highness," the duke replied with a slight smile. "You are a very capable young lady in many ways, but not at surviving the wilderness. Nor, of course, am I. And besides, we have no way of knowing just which way Elsa went. No, the only thing we can do is wait for this special task force."

"What on Earth made you request the help of monsters?" Anna asked. She eyed him suspiciously. "You wouldn't be assuming that you need to set a monster to catch a monster, would you? That my sister is a monster?"

"Not at all, no, my dear niece," Ramberg told her quickly. "I would never suggest that. Queen Elsa is simply… troubled."

"Troubled!" Anna shot, throwing her arms in the air. "Troubled! I don't believe her! My own sister—all these years, I hadn't the slightest idea! It's impossible!"

"We all saw it," Ramberg said smoothly. "I cannot explain it any more than you can." He looked at her curiously. "I don't suppose you have any secret powers?"

Anna glared at him. "Don't be an idiot. The only power I have is to be a blind, dumb, fool! And that's not a secret—not any more! All my life I've been living with a… a… a witch! God, that sounds so stupid when I say it! But what else is she?"

"Well, that's why we asked the Monster Force people to come—they have experience in this sort of thing."

"Monsters? Freaks?" Anna sighed. "You're right. I don't even know if that is my sister, or something that has taken her over. It's not as if we were that close. Not these days. And since our parents died, it's like I don't even know her any more." She paused briefly, and looked up at the man beside her. "I wish I could have the old Elsa back…."

"Perhaps you can," Ramberg said. "If it's safe—if she's safe."

"You think she's a danger?" Anna asked, her eyes wide.

Ramberg shrugged. "This power—this storm, it is dangerous. It may be too dangerous to bring her back to the castle."

"What?" Anna gasped. "Are the Americans coming here to capture her, take her back to that secret site of theirs? Because I will not permit that! She's the queen!"

"I'm sure they would not dare," Ramberg said soothingly. "They're just here to stop her. Whatever she has become—whatever she is…."

"She's my sister, that's what she is," Anna stated. "She's not a monster!"

"Of course she is," he murmured. "Of course." He glanced over as the door to the study opened and an officer stepped in and gestured to them. "Looks like they're about to land. You said you wanted to meet them at the airport?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah. The sooner we get started the sooner we can stop my sister. This freak blizzard has to end. Otherwise our small country will be destroyed. Consumed beneath the ice."

"Don't worry," Ramberg said softly. "I'll keep you safe—keep us all safe from her... I promise."

* * *

"There it is!"

"Where?" Anna looked around, following the captain's pointing finger. She blinked the driving snow out of her eyes, holding the fur-lined hood of her parka close about her face.

"Just coming into view over there, Highness," the captain said.

"My God!" Anna gasped as she watched the massive military transport sway from side to side in the howling blizzard. "Captain Hansen, can they make it in this weather?"

"They have to," Hansen said. "They just have to. Otherwise we have no hope left."

Anna's heart was in her mouth as she watched the huge dull green plane slowly approach the single runway of Moskenesoya International Airport. It was shifting wildly from the glide path as the winds buffeted it, and she was not at all surprised when, just short of the runway, its powerful turbofans spun up again with a deafening roar and the aircraft started climbing away again.

"The pilot says they can't land with this wind shear," Hansen explained to her, putting aside his walkie-talkie. "They're going to come around for another pass and do an air-drop."

"An air-drop?" Anna asked, confused. "Won't that be even more dangerous in this weather?"

The captain shrugged. "Apparently not, Highness. It seems they have some way to get the troops down safely. After that they will make another pass and drop off the emergency supplies we requested. Enough food and fuel for the emergency evacuation facilities until the Norwegian icebreaker makes it through."

Anna stood and watched nervously as the plane circled the fjord, almost invisible behind the driving snow.

"Here it comes," she said, seeing the great green-grey shape fly low and slow overhead, its warning lights flashing red and green, reflecting off the white snowflakes. Then it was hidden in a sudden flurry, and she lost it.

"Have they given—" she started to say, and then gasped in shock as a tremendous impact shook the ground, almost throwing her off balance. She spun in the direction of the sound, horrified at the thought that the plane might have crashed. To her astonishment, through the snow she saw a titanic shape crouched down on the runway, one hand on the ground and the other to its chest. After a second or two, it lowered its other hand, and she realised it had been holding other figures, looking no bigger than dolls. Then the titan slowly stood, rearing higher and higher, impossibly tall, and Anna's heart skipped a beat as she remembered the old tales of the jötnar, the giants of Norse myth and legend. Of Skaði and Gerðr, the giantess brides of the gods.

But of course this was no legend, Anna realised—all the world now knew who this was: Ginormica, the American girl who had been mutated by an alien substance, causing her to gain incredible size and strength.

The giantess came closer, looming taller and taller over everything, her pure white hair whipping in the gale. She was only wearing a skin-tight suit of dark blue, decorated with gold lines and dots, and for a moment Anna was reminded of how Elsa would wear the skimpiest of clothing even in the middle of winter. Anna had never understood why the cold had never bothered her sister.

Until now….

Her heart beating fast despite herself, she remained where she was as the giantess bent down on one knee before her, bringing her huge but gentle face closer. Anna fought to stay calm, and was reassured by a nervous smile from Ginormica.

"Ummm… er, gleder meg å møte deg, Høyhet," the giantess said in a low, powerfully resonant voice. "I mean, pleased to meet you, Highness."

Anna blinked, and laughed. "Velkommen til Arendelle, Ginormica," she said. "I am so very glad to see you, too," she added in fluent, slightly-accented English.

"Please, Highness, call me Susan."

"Susan, welcome," Anna said, giving the giantess a smile. Thinking of her as Susan was certainly helpful in humanizing the titanic figure before her. "Thanks for, er, coming so quickly."

"Indeed, we are most grateful," Ramberg said, stepping forward and extending a hand. He was dressed in thick furs, making his slight frame seem quite bulky. "I am the prime minister, the Duke of Ramberg. On behalf of a frozen nation, welcome. This, as I'm sure you are aware, is Her Royal Highness the Princess Anna Louise Astrid von Oldenburg-Àrnadalr."

"What a lot of names!" a strange blue blob exclaimed. "Why do you have so many? Is it in case you forget one?"

"Hush, Bob," Susan said, squishing him flat under her hand.

"Thank you, Ginormica. Ahem. Monster Force, at your service," another voice said. Anna tore her gaze away from the giantess to focus on the short, stocky man in full arctic winter gear who was standing at attention, saluting her. "I am General Monger, this is Dr Cockroach, the Missing Link, and that—Ginormica, you can let him out now—that is known as Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate."

"Hi! I'm Bob!" Bob called, waving with three arms. "Welcome to Funland!"

"Bob, first, that's Finland, and second, this isn't Finland," the insect-headed man said, rolling his huge amber eyes. "My apologies, min prinsesse," he added, nodding courteously at Anna.

"Uh, thank you all for coming," Anna said, looking at the strange creatures in front of her. Cockroach and Link were dressed similarly to the general, in thick quilted winter clothing, though the large blue gelatinous mass was unclothed.

"I do hate to break into this charming conversation," the duke said. "But could we continue it somewhere less blustery?"

"You're right," Monger said. "We've wasted enough time already. We need to assemble for a briefing, Your Highness. Then we can move out, try and track your sister down. And end this winter."

"The hanger is at your disposal. It should, er, fit Susan," Anna said, gesturing. "Captain Hansen, bring the truck for our guests."

"I think I'll walk," Susan said with a smile, standing to her full height. Anna looked up, way up, and swallowed hard. Ginormica was immense. It was barely possible to believe she was even human. Still less that she was so gentle, and… well, 'normal' was the only word for it, Anna decided. The thought gave her some hope, at least—being a freak, a monster, didn't mean you had to be dangerous or insane. Perhaps her sister could be reasoned with.

Perhaps….

* * *

"Oh I am glad to get out of that!" Link cried, shutting the small hanger door and stamping his feet to shake the snow off.

"I quite agree," Cockroach said, removing layer after layer of thick clothing. "Cockroaches do not like the cold. At. All," he added with feeling, moving as close to the heater as he could and sighing in contentment.

Susan ducked under the main hangar door, which was quickly shut behind her, and sat down cross-legged behind the others. A large number of Arendellian soldiers and officials joined them, with the princess at their head. She nodded to Monger, and took one of the prepared seats.

"Right, we all here?" Monger asked. "Good. Princess Anna, Prime Minister, with your permission, I would like to get the briefing started. We've been able to get some information since the initial, uh, incident, but can you please run down the events of the past seventy-two hours?"

"With your permission, Highness, I should return to the castle," the duke said. "Much needs to be done in this disaster. I cannot remain away for too long."

"Of course," Anna said, nodding. "And thanks, Uncle Mustela."

"I shall join you after the briefing," Monger added. "In the meantime, if you would be so good, Your Highness? Could explain just what happened?"

"Ah, yes, yes of course," Anna said, joining Monger at the podium. She looked out over the small group of the strangest creatures she had ever seen in her life, and took a deep breath.

"First of all, thank you all for coming to help our small kingdom. We are all very grateful, and the supplies you have also dropped off will be of great help." She sighed, and bit her lip, glancing up at Susan, who gave the princess a reassuring smile. "It happened at the ball. I suppose it was my fault, in a way. We were arguing, about… well, something silly really. It's not important. But I grabbed her hand, and pulled her glove off by accident. I never knew why she always wore gloves—I figured she was maybe afraid of germs, or it was a fashion thing. Turns out that, er, that wasn't the case at all. Anyway, she was furious, and she… what is the English word? Unleashed. She unleashed her… magic, I think, is the only word. Her power. Her ice power. We say _ismakt_ in Norwegian. Huge… spikes of ice."

Anna shuddered at the memory, at the utter numbing shock she had felt at the sight, the revelation that her own sister was… so different. Then she took a breath and carried on. "The Duc d'Beletteville was badly injured by a spike, and then Elsa just… she just ran. She fled. We—I—followed her down to the water, but… she just ran straight across the fjord, freezing it as she went. She vanished into the hills on the other side, and ever since she left, we've had this horrible blizzard. It just won't stop, and the wind is too strong for us to send out helicopters to look for her, or even for any planes to leave. The fjord is icing over, getting thicker by the hour, and if something isn't done soon… I think we will all be doomed."

"Thank you very much, Highness," Monger said as Anna returned to her seat. "We have managed to establish limited high-definition satellite imagery of Arendelle, but we have no hope of tracking the queen in this weather. Cockroach has been working on theories about how this is possible, how she can cause this, but we don't have time to worry about that now."

"Only at the hypothesis stage at the moment, I'm afraid," Cockroach interjected. "But for once the general's right—our first priority must be to save Arendelle from… well, from a rather severe case of anthropogenic climate change."

"Anthropo-what?" Monger asked, glaring at the insect-headed scientist. "Are you on about your liberal global warming again? Because have you looked around you? Are we warm?"

"This isn't climate, it's weather!" Cockroach shot back. "I was trying to make a joke!"

"Well, I'm not laughing! Climate is just lots of weather! And what do you mean, 'for once'?"

"Gentlemen, please…" Anna said, her voice raised just loud enough to carry the full force of all her training and education in public speaking and leadership.

Monger and Cockroach broke off immediately. Red-faced, the general returned to the podium. "My, er, apologies, Highness. Ahem. Where was I? Yes. The immediate issue is how to save this country from…uh, this blizzard the queen appears to have caused. The satellite images show that the storm is centred on this peak, Nordfjell, to the south-west of Reine. We are going to work on the assumption that the, er, Snow Queen, if indeed she is causing this weather, is there."

"So how do we get there?" Link asked. "I mean, we ditched the plane, and we couldn't bring Insecto as it's too cold for her, so…?"

"That's where Ginormica comes in," Monger said. "Her legs are twenty-five feet long, and, with those and her titanic strength, she can walk through deep snow with ease."

Anna raised her eyebrows, and cast a glance at the giantess's crossed legs. "Just how strong are you, Susan?" she asked.

"Uh, pretty strong, I guess," Susan said. "I mean, giants are always stronger, right?"

"Highness, do you see that plane over there, the Boeing 777?" Cockroach asked.

Anna glanced over at one of the few large planes Air Arendelle owned, and nodded. "Yes, of course, but we can't fly in this weather, if that's what you're asking."

"It is not. I would just like to point out that Susan could pick the entire thing straight off the ground, easily."

Anna's eyes grew round. "Lift that? What? The whole plane?"

"Easily," Cockroach repeated, his chest puffed out. "Fully loaded," he added.

Anna stared at the gigantic woman seated on the ground inside the hanger, and shook her head. She looked so gentle, so modest—in fact she was actually blushing. But then she remembered how polite and calm her own sister had always been, and how successfully she had managed to hide what she really was. And from her own flesh and blood, no less. So she knew how impossible it was to tell what was really going on in someone's heart. How impossible it was to truly know anyone. Ginormica might seem sweet, she might even want to be sweet—but, like her sister, this foreign giantess possessed incredible power, and that made her dangerous. Like her sister.

"We need to sort out teams and provisions, Highness," Hansen said. "General, would you?"

"Right, listen up you sorry lot," Monger said. "We've got supplies to distribute and snow queens to catch. Cockroach and Link will remain here with me and help ensure that the good citizens of Arendelle do not freeze to death, and Bob will accompany Susan to track down Queen Elsa."

"And I will join you," Anna said, her face set.

"Highness! You mustn't!" Hansen gasped. "It's far too dangerous!"

"She's my sister, Captain!" Anna said. "I have to go. I'm probably the only one she trusts right now. Not that she ever really trusted me; that's clear enough, now I know how she lied to me all her life, I mean. I mean, she couldn't bloody tell her own sister? She couldn't trust me?" Anna took a deep breath, then started again. "I have to go, Captain. I have to."

"But Highness, if you were to be… God forbid, killed, then we would have no monarch!"

"Then become a republic!" Anna snapped. "The only thing at the moment that I care about is my sister, and keeping the people of our kingdom safe from her. And I can't do that sitting here! General Monger, I hereby officially request to accompany your team members on their mission to find my sister!"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Highness," Monger said, scratching his chin. "I can't take the responsibility of keeping you safe, ma'am. We've got Ginormica if your… if the Snow Queen is a threat."

"Listen, General," Anna said. "You need me there! Unless you're intending to use force to subdue my sister, with this great big giant you've brought—and if you do, there will be the most severe consequences our government can devise. On behalf of the government, as acting head of state of Arendelle, I forbid any violent action designed to harm my sister, and officially demand you take me!"

Monger made a face, but nodded. "On the understanding that Uncle Sam can in no way assume responsibility for your safety."

"Great!" Anna said, reverting immediately to being a cheerful teenager. Susan was amazed how fast she could switch moods, and presumed it was something you learned if you were a princess. It was all about concealing your real feelings, being diplomatic, or whatever. She was glad that growing up as an average girl in an average town meant she never had to worry about anything like that.

"Right, move out!" Monger called. "Cockroach, Link, you're with me! Bob, Ginormica—make sure the princess returns safe and sound! And the queen!"

"Yes, sir!" Susan said, giving him a salute as he headed out. She stood up, thankful that she didn't need to worry about ducking her head in the spacious hangar, then looked down at the others.

"Ready, Bob?" she asked, and was rewarded with ten thumbs up, all protruding from different parts of the blob's body.

"Sorry about that… great big giant bit," Anna said, walking over to Susan.

Susan shook her head. "You're worried about your sister, of course. But honestly, I could never hurt her. I swear. Even if Monger ordered me to, I wouldn't."

"Thanks, Susan," the princess said with a smile as Monger raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you couldn't. Me, however, I'm gonna kill her!" she added with a grin.

"Princess, with your permission, I'll prepare your snowmobile," Hansen said.

Anna nodded, then looked back up at the giantess. "I'm heading out. Wait for me outside the town along Route E10 in one hour."

"Route E10?" Susan asked. "Uh, sure, I'll find it. Or you'll find me…."

"I'm sure that won't be hard," Anna said, barely suppressing a laugh. Then her face became solemn again. "I know that compared to saving the world from alien invasion, saving one small, remote country from… uh, unseasonable weather… must seem like a child's game—I mean child's play, sorry; excuse my mistake—but we are, of course, very grateful."

"I must say, I'm impressed with how well you speak American," Monger said, nodding approvingly.

"English, General!" Cockroach hissed. "Please!"

"Doesn't everybody now?" Anna replied. "It is only you Americans who are so monolingual."

"I'm sorry, he shouldn't have said that," Susan said. "Of course you are right. We are."

"Oh, and my mother was also English," Anna said, giving the giantess a warm smile. "She was born Princess Mary, daughter of Princess Alexandra, the grand-daughter of Britain's King George V."

"Fascinating. So the Queen's your cousin twice removed?" Cockroach asked, his left antenna twitching in interest.

"My sister is not my cousin, removed or otherwise," the princess said, raising an eyebrow.

"My most humble apologies, Your Majesty," Cockroach said with a low bow. "I did not mean to offend."

Then the princess smiled. "I know—to you, the Queen is and always will be the Queen of England. But yes, we are related. As of course are most of the royal houses of Europe. We're all quite terribly inbred, really. England and Scandinavia have a long history together: in addition to my own mother, Queen Mary, Queen Maud of Norway was British by birth. In fact," she added with a slight smile, "our relationship goes back a thousand years, starting with when our people conquered part of England."

"Ah, yes, the Vikings, and the Danelaw," Cockroach said. "King Canute's empire."

"Canute?" Susan asked. "The guy who thought he was could even rule the tides?"

Cockroach shook his head. "That is quite wrong. Canute the Great was no fool. That story was his demonstration to the fawning courtiers that no matter how much power he had, there were some things even a king could not control."

"But it seems that there are some unexpected things a queen can control," Anna said soberly, glancing up at the driving snow against the slate-grey sky. "And we don't have much time."

"Don't worry, Highness. We'll make it before it gets too much worse," Susan said.

Anna looked up at her. "Are you sure you're going to be warm enough in that? It looks a bit, well, thin."

"Oh, I'm fine," Susan said. "The suit's an alien one, and helps regulate my temperature. Plus Doc said something about my surface area to volume ratio means I lose less heat. He also explained that the quantonium inside me gives me all the energy I need, even when it's this cold: it's like having warm blood. Well, I mean, I do have warm blood of course, but you know what I mean. Uh, sorry for babbling, your Highness," she added.

"Yes, I think follow you," Anna said, giving Susan a slight smile. "And don't worry about babbling. Elsa's told me I do it often enough." At the mention of her sister, the redheaded princess's expression changed, and she bit her lip. "I hope she's all right. I'm worried for her."

"We'll stop this winter, Highness," Susan said. "And save your sister. I promise."

"I'm just afraid she's become a monster," Anna said softly.

The giantess knelt down, and smiled. "Becoming a monster isn't the end of the world, you know…."

* * *

"Right, the supplies have been brought in. That lot's for distribution. This case is for us. Ginormica, take this backpack with you," Monger told her, gesturing to a massive canvas bag, to which two huge padded straps had been added. "It contains a tent for you, as well as food and other supplies."

"I hope it's not too heavy," Hansen said, looking at the size of the pack, which was nearly twice his height.

Susan shook her head. "No, it's nothing," she said, hoisting it on the tip of her little finger and smiling at his stunned reaction. She slipped it over her shoulders, and settled it in place. "Come on Bob. We've got some hiking to do. Right, where's the meeting point?"

"Follow me," the Captain said, re-wrapping himself up warmly.

Susan followed him out of the door, and carefully made her way along the narrow streets of the town. There were almost no people about: an emergency situation had been declared, and the roads were free of all non-essential traffic. She was grateful for that, but still managed to knock over a streetlamp and two trees. She quickly apologized, but Captain Hansen just told her not to worry, and that they were facing a much graver threat than a few damaged street fixtures.

They soon arrived at an area on the outskirts where there were a number of large commercial warehouses. She spotted a man standing next to a black snowmobile, behind which was a covered trailer.

"Right, Ginormica," Captain Hansen said. "This is Kristoff Reinsdyr, a Sami mountain guide. He runs Sven's Trekking, the main mountain tour company in Reine. What he doesn't know about the mountains isn't worth knowing."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr Reinsdyr. I'm Susan."

The blond man shook the giantess's two-foot long finger nervously, never taking his eyes off her. "I am… I am Kristoff. Welcome to Arendelle. Sorry about our, uh, big summer blow-out storm."

Susan smiled. "Thanks. This is Bob. He doesn't have a brain, but doesn't let that stop him."

"Hi Mister Kristoff! I'm Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate! But my friends call me Susie Q!"

"No, they don't, Bob," Susan said. "Sorry about that, Kristoff. Bob's mildly telepathic. It's how he compensates for not having a brain—he borrows other people's. It also means he can separate himself into different pieces. Doc once sent him through a sieve to see what would happen."

"I made spaghetti!" Bob said happily. "Yum!"

"If I might crave your attention," Hansen said after giving a mild cough. "Thank you. The princess will be here soon. It is vitally important that she return alive, do you understand? She must survive. If we were to lose her as well as her sister, the country would collapse."

"Her sister's not lost, not yet, Captain," Susan said. "Just because someone's become a monster, it doesn't mean they're not still human."

"My apologies, madam," Hansen said, glancing briefly up at the massive giantess, then averting his eyes. "I did not mean to suggest anything."

"No, it's okay, I know you didn't," Susan said. "Oh, wait, is that her?" She peered through the blizzard, seeing a red-clad figure heading towards them astride a bright pink snowmobile.

"Highness!" Hansen saluted as Anna drew up to them, and Kristoff stood to attention.

"At ease, men," Anna said. "Mr Reinsdyr, which direction do you suggest?"

Kristoff glanced briefly up at Susan. "The American general believes Nordfjell—North Peak, so we have a long trek. Two, maybe three days. It depends how much snow there will be on the mountain."

"A lot, I think," Anna said, glancing around. "And the longer we wait, the more there will be."

"Yes, perhaps we should get moving," Kristoff suggested. "I shall take the front position, the Princess behind me, and the foreigners can bring up the rear. If we go too fast for you, please tell us."

Susan nodded. "Do you want me to carry any extra supplies? I have some room in my backpack."

Kristoff shook his head. "No, thank you. Now, we need to start off. I want to be at Å in time to make camp."

"Uh, sorry, where? Uh?" Susan asked.

Anna laughed. "Not Uh, Å. It's a town to the south of Reine."

Kristoff nodded. "It is only ten kilometres away, but in this weather, it may take hours. Keep close to me, please."

He switched on his snowmobile, which was equipped with blue and red flashing lights, and drove off at a moderate pace, followed by Anna.

"Hey, Susie Q, what's going on? Are we going to visit Anna's sister?" Bob asked.

The giantess smiled. "That we are. Come on, Bob, let's go rescue a queen!"

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES:**

I think I should note that while there will definitely be similarities to Frozen, plot-wise, this won't be a simple retelling. This Elsa and Anna are not the Elsa and Anna of Frozen—though they are very similar in many ways: I need to balance having them be recognizable yet not identical. Same as the story….

The jötnar, or "giantesses," Skaði and Gerðr, are as described. "Gerðr" can be written as "Gerda," incidentally.

Ginormica's "gleder meg å møte deg, Høyhet" means "Pleased to meet you, Highness" (thanks to Cyries for improving my non-existent Norwegian skills) I figured Susan might take a bit of time on the long flight to practice a little bit of Norwegian. "Min prinsesse" should be self-evident. "Reinsdyr" is Norwegian for "reindeer." No actual reindeer will feature in this story—people use snowmobiles instead.

Princess Mary does not actually exist, but Queen Maud of Norway, wife of King Haakon (d. 1938) was a similar case: she was a member of the British royal family, and a grand-daughter of Victoria. So I have had Elsa and Anna's mother be a member of the same family, as a way for them to be able to speak English fluently—having learnt it from their mother as a child. So their mother is the made-up daughter of the very real Princess Alexandra, daughter of the equally real Princess Alice and the Queen's cousin (Alice being the third daughter of George V and Mary of Teck). This is just a way to get around the language issue and allow Els/a/nna and Susan to have some deep and meaningful talks later on.

Anna's full name is the same one I used for _There Sleeps a Living Flower_ , although, on advice from an actual Norwegian, Cyries, who was good enough to send me some detailed notes, I have changed "Sonja," using "Astrid" instead as it is the name of an actual blood princess (and a very minor shout-out to _How To Train Your Dragon_ ). The reason for using the same name is really just because I rather like it. No other significance. Other names have more significance: for example, Beletteville is made up of the French words _belette_ and _ville_. _Weasel_ and _town_ ….

E10 is the main road (pretty much the only road) through the real Reine. It starts at the village of Å, which is one of the shortest placenames in the world.

I have decided to have Susan almost as immune to the cold as Elsa, though for different reasons. Mainly because I want to have her in her iconic alien suit rather than wrapped up in furs. The canon _Blob_ was stopped by cold, but I can't give him that weakness here, or else he won't be of much use, and since Olaf won't be featuring, I need someone else who can be impaled….


	3. The Winter of Our Discontent

**3\. The Winter of Our Discontent**

They headed along the road by the coast at first, heading directly into the howling blizzard. Susan was grateful that her alien suit, along with her quantonium-enhanced biology, kept her warm, but the driving snow was a constant annoyance until she realised she could get Bob to wrap around her head, stretched transparently thin across her eyes. This made it a lot easier, and she had no problem keeping up with the motorized Arendellians.

Anna was checking her rear-view mirror frequently, still unable to truly believe her eyes at the size of the American giantess, whose legs, each the size of a tree trunk, were able to easily pace their snowmobiles. It was truly astounding to watch her walk, to see a living being as massive as she was. And one who moved so lightly, so gracefully. Anna was mildly surprised that the ground did not shake with every step Ginormica took, but there was barely a sound, muffled by the snow, as the great giantess walked behind them.

After passing through the small town of Å and then several more hours of following the coast, along a steep narrow valley, Kristoff held up his hand and slowed his machine.

"We're making very good time, so we shall carry on," he said. "We head into the mountains from here. Stick close, and do not veer off the trail I make. Highness, please, do you understand? The mountains can be dangerous, especially in sudden heavy snow like this."

"I know," Anna replied, nodding. "Will you be all right?" she asked the giantess, who was squatting behind her.

"We'll be right behind you," Susan called. She watched as Kristoff and the princess headed up the hill, along a low, gentle ridge. Then she stepped off the road, into a snowdrift that came up to her calf, but the snow was light and soft, and did not hamper her legs at all. The snowstorm was easing, at least, and she no longer needed to use Bob as a mask.

Kristoff headed into a pine forest, then stopped and looked back at Susan. "Can you follow us? There is another route, but it is about twice as long."

"As long as you don't mind a few bent trees, sure," Susan said, pushing one tall pine tree to the side. With a crack that echoed off the mountainside, its foot-thick trunk snapped in two, the top falling to the ground.

Kristoff's eyes widened, and he whistled. "Impressive. We shall be going more slowly here. Please shout if you find it hard."

"No problem," Susan said. She kicked her foot out of a ten-foot drift, and pushed aside another tree, which creaked and groaned loudly as it was uprooted by the powerful giantess.

Anna, looking on, felt a jolt of fear rush through her at the tremendous strength the American had. Both Susan and her sister could, if they chose, kill someone with a snap of their fingers – Elsa with a blade of ice to the heart, and Susan simply through sheer, unstoppable strength. How did one deal with such dangerous power? How could you even feel human?

* * *

They climbed up for another hour, Susan pushing the trees aside like she was walking through tall grass, and came to a large clearing. Anna stopped her snowmobile and called out to Kristoff.

"I'm tired. We shall camp here for the night," she declared.

"You do not want to keep climbing?" Susan asked. She glanced up at the sky. "It's still light, I mean. And your sister's still out there. And the snow is not stopping."

"I know," Anna said. "But after all this time, a few hours is not going to make much difference to Arendelle—not now, thanks to the supplies you brought. And I don't know about you, but I certainly can't keep going all night. I'm exhausted. So let's get the tents ready."

"We should keep going a little further, Highness," Kristoff said. "There is a place a little further where we can stay the night."

"A place? You mean a house?" the princess asked.

Kristoff nodded. "Of a sort. It is just over that ridge."

Anna shrugged. "I suppose I can make it that far before my nose freezes off."

In about half an hour they had crested the low ridge, and found themselves in a small, shallow valley. There was a small log building at the far side, to which Kristoff headed. He stopped his snowmobile, and called the others around.

"This is Wandering Oaken Mountain Supplies," he said. "It is run by my good friend Oaken."

"Ooh, it has a sauna too," Anna said happily, examining the sign. "I could certainly use one right about now!"

"So could I," Susan said to herself, knowing that there was no way she would ever be able to fit into the building, let alone the sauna. She took her backpack off, and looked around. "I guess I'll have to pitch my tent outside," she said.

Anna looked up at the gigantic woman, realizing for the first time some of the downsides of being a giant. "I'm sorry," she called up. "I wish there was something I could do."

"Don't mention it," Susan said, giving the princess a quick polite smile. "I'll be fine out here. The cold doesn't bother me, anyway."

Anna shivered. That was something Elsa used to say, usually when she had left a door or window open and a frigid draught chilled the castle.

"Princess, this is Oaken Vandrende," Kristoff said in Norwegian, interrupting her thoughts, as the door opened and a tall blond man came out.

"You honour me with your visit, Princess," Oaken said. He was a big man with a barrel chest, and Anna would have thought him immensely strong normally, but after seeing what Susan could do, even the most impressive normal humans seemed weak and puny. Then she saw him catch sight of Susan, and his jaw dropped. "What… what is… what is that?"

"This is Susan, from America. She is here to help us end this blizzard."

"Yes, yes, what is she? Is she… a real person?"

Anna laughed. "Yes, she is. Haven't you seen her on the news?"

Oaken shook his head. "I have no television, Highness. I am a mountain man. The outside world does not interest me."

"Well, she and her friends saved the entire world from an alien invasion," Anna explained.

Oaken's expression of surprise grew even more extreme. He tried to say something, but no words came out. "Aliens?" he quacked at last.

"Look, can we talk about this inside?" Anna asked. "It's rather cold out here."

"Of course, forgive me, Highness," Oaken said, tearing his eyes away from the sight of Susan setting up her tent. "Please, come inside. We have a nice sauna, and some food. Might I ask, what is our Princess doing so far in the mountains? And in such an unseasonable storm, no less?"

"You might as well know," Anna said as she headed into the small shop area. "It's my sister, the queen."

"The queen?"

"Yes. And she has done this." Anna quickly explained the events of the ball, and what had happened afterwards. Oaken's eyes grew round, and he whistled. "So you are here to find her? I did not see her pass, but I was asleep, I think. I woke to find… all this snow! Giants, aliens, snow queens…. What is going on? The world is going topsy-turvy!"

"It sure is!" Bob called out, joining them.

"You speak Norwegian?" Anna gasped.

"I do what now?" the blue blob asked as Oaken jumped behind his counter and crouched there, quivering.

"You speak Norwegian. You were speaking Norwegian!"

Bob shrugged. "I just speak whatever's in your heads," he said.

"Of course—Susan explained it," Anna said, nodding. "You're mildly telepathic. You borrow other peoples' brains. And so of course you know what they think, and can speak their language."

"I know what you're thinking?" Bob asked, looking surprised.

Anna laughed. "Well, you might if your telepathy worked better."

"Ooh, is that a pickle jar?" Bob asked, pointing towards a large glass bottle on the counter. "Because there isn't a pickle jar in the world that Susan couldn't open. Would you like to get her to open it for you? Yo, Susan!" Bob called.

"No, no, no thank you," Anna said quickly. "It's only lutefisk. And Oaken can open the jar easily himself."

"Ooh, lutefisk! I love lutefisk!" Bob cried.

"Would… you like some lutefisk?" Oaken asked, nervously pushing it towards the blue creature.

"Ooh, don't mind if I do," Bob said, and to the Arendellians' astonishment proceeded to absorb the entire fish, jar and all. "Yum! I sure do love lutefisk! Say, what is lutefisk? Is it like pickles? Wait, it's pickled fish? Amazing!"

* * *

Outside, Susan had managed to erect her simple pup tent, barely large enough for her and her backpack. She crawled inside, and dug out some of the super-sized Hooah energy bars the Army had prepared for her. While her quantonium provided enough energy to maintain her body, which she was very grateful for as normal food could never provide enough calories to sustain her fifty-foot frame, she still had a stomach and it still did get empty. So she was glad that she didn't need to worry about not eating on this trip.

Once her light supper was finished, she fished out her communicator, a customised headset. Slipping it over her head, she turned the power on.

"General? Come in, sir. This is Susan. I mean, this is Ginormica."

There was a brief pause, then Monger's voice cut in.

"Receiving you loud and clear, Ginormica. What's your status?"

"We're at some place called Wandering Oaken Mountain Supplies," Susan said. "We're staying here the night, and will carry on up the mountain in the morning."

"No sign of the queen?"

"None. We're not at North Peak yet, so…. At any rate, it's stopped snowing. For the moment. Hey, how are things down there?"

"Things down here are… not good," Monger admitted. "The Duke's taken charge, distributing the supplies we brought to the people. Tell Her Highness he's been a great help."

"Will do," Susan said. "How are Doc and Link doing?"

"Cockroach's been working on umpteen dozen contradictory theories about Queen Elsa's… er, power. Link's been helping out with that. In between trying to cause international incidents by chasing every good-looking woman he sees."

Susan laughed. "Knowing Link, that's most women. Just as well it's not bikini weather."

"Er, yes, well, I'll expect another update once you've found the Queen. Monger out."

"Roger. Over and out," Susan said, switching off. Returning the headset to her supplies, she wriggled back out again and leaned her back against the building as she gazed down the valley. There was a thick belt of pine trees below her, and then some open flat pastures, giving way to an inlet of the sea, beyond which another range of mountains rose, steep and rugged. Everything she could see was covered in snow, making it sparkle and shine in the low light of the sun, about twenty degrees above the horizon.

"It will not go down for many weeks."

Susan turned and looked down, seeing the princess standing on the porch. "The sun? It's not setting? I thought it was evening."

Anna laughed. "It will not get dark tonight, Susan. Arendelle is famous as the Land of the Midnight Sun."

"Oh yeah, I remember. That's weird. I really can't imagine that. I mean, it feels like it's only the late afternoon."

"Next time, come in winter. The sun never rises then."

Susan shuddered. "I don't think I'd like that."

"It's okay. The whole town's filed with lights. My sister always liked it." Anna sighed. There was a short silence, then she started talking again. "I keep going over that night, going over the last few years, in my mind, wondering what I could have done differently—if there were any clues. Looking back, I don't know how I was so blind. There were all these clues, really. Ice appearing in strange places. Elsa never taking her gloves off, not even to eat. Never acting cold, even in winter." Anna frowned, wrinkling her forehead. "You know," she said slowly, "come to think of it, I don't think I ever saw her breath in winter. Never…."

"Don't blame yourself. Or your sister," Susan said. "It wasn't your fault—how could you possible know?"

"She knew all the time," Anna said, fuming. "All this bloody time! And not one word to me, her own sister! I can't believe it!"

"Maybe she was afraid of hurting you?" Susan suggested.

Anna looked up at the giantess. "Hurting me? By not even telling me? That's what hurts, to be honest. And why run away? What's she afraid of? Who? She's the queen! And it's not the 16th century—we don't burn witches any more! Why not just come home, to her family? To me? Doesn't she trust me?"

"She's afraid," Susan said quietly. "She must be. I know I was terrified when… this happened to me. I couldn't actually run away, because I was caught by the government, but… I was so scared and confused I didn't know what I was doing."

"I can't imagine Elsa ever not knowing exactly what she was doing," Anna said. "She was always so cool, so confident. So perfectly regal." She laughed. "Unlike me. You wouldn't believe the things I got up to. Riding my motorbike in the Great Hall!"

"In the hall? Yikes!" Susan gasped. "Wait, you have a motorbike?"

Anna shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"I guess I just never imagined a princess riding a motorbike," Susan confessed, a slight smile on her lips.

"Nor could my sister, by her reaction," Anna said, laughing. Then she stopped abruptly, and looked up at Susan. "I suppose that was probably a silly thing to do. I think I was trying to get a reaction from her—any reaction. She was always so… calm, so composed, sometimes I wanted to just shatter that icy attitude! And then… I finally did, and I wish I never had!"

"Things will be all right, you'll see," Susan said. "I think, if I did have someone I was close to, but then we grew apart, I might do crazy things as well. Just to get her to talk to me."

"You know, sometimes it looked as if she would," Anna said, sighing. "Sometimes the ice would crack, and I could see the old Elsa in there. But every time… she would freeze over again. Shutting me out. Shutting everyone out. Why? Why shut me out?"

"I'm sure it wasn't because she didn't love you," Susan said, giving the princess a smile. "I'm sure she's just scared, trying to work out what she is."

There was a brief silence. "I'm scared too," Anna whispered. "I wonder… did we drive her away? When she… when her power was revealed, it was such a shock… we called her a monster, a witch. No wonder she ran…."

"I'm sure she'll understand," Susan said, feeling rather helpless. "It's natural for your family to react when they suddenly find out you're a monster…"

"How did your family react to… to this?" Anna asked, gesturing up at Susan.

The giantess sighed. "They were told I was being kept isolated for study and that I was too dangerous to be allowed in public. My parents couldn't do a thing."

"What about brothers or sisters? How did they react?"

Susan shook her head. "I'm an only child. I don't have a sister. Sometimes I've wished I did."

"Sometimes I've wished I didn't," Anna said. She paused, and looked up at the giantess. "We used to be so close, you know. My mother nicknamed us 'Elsanna' because we did everything together, it was like we were one person. And then we just suddenly weren't. Elsa just started shutting me out of her life. I never knew why. But now…. I think that must have been when her… her power… appeared."

"It must have been so hard, suddenly not being able to play with your sister. And then to lose your parents…."

Anna gave a deep sigh. "Elsa didn't even attend their funeral, you know? After they died, the last part of her that was the sister I knew died as well. For the past three years, she's been... it was like she was someone else. And now I know she was—she was a witch…. She was something…." She trailed off, and bit her lip.

Susan stared out over the trees at the low sun. "I remember when this… happened to me," she said eventually, gesturing vaguely towards her fifty-foot frame. "I was terrified. I... I don't know if I wanted to run, but I know I wished I could hide – although a lot of that was due to me being stark naked at the time," she added with a laugh.

"I guess clothes don't stretch that much," Anna noted with a grin. Then her expression turned serious. "It must have been awful. Such a sudden change."

Susan nodded. "I was captured and imprisoned, just for being a monster—for being different. I don't blame your sister for running. She must be so scared."

"It's so hard to think of Elsa as being scared," Anna admitted. "She was always the strong one. The good girl, who learned her lessons and kept out of trouble. While I was spending my time partying around Europe. We would always argue about that, and what a princess was supposed to be like. Or rather, I would always argue—she was always the icy calm one. And the hotter I got, the colder she grew. It made me so… so furious." She sighed. "This whole thing was my fault. All my fault."

"I'm sure it wasn't," Susan said, wishing she could hug the princess, or give her some form of comfort. But not only was she not sure of the etiquette, her hand alone was nearly as large as Anna's whole body. She could no longer hug anyone. Ever.

"No. It was," Anna said with a sigh. "We were arguing. About something I'd done. She didn't approve of me being photographed topless on the Riviera with Prince Hans—said I had an image to maintain, that I was a princess, and needed to act like it, and I asked why she should care, because I was just a useless spare. I told her she that she cared more for her perfect image than for anything her own sister was feeling. I said she'd clearly never loved me, because she had spent the last ten years trying to shut me out, never letting me in. And that was why I was always out partying. I couldn't stand to be around someone so cold, so frigid. So she told me I was welcome to leave and go out partying permanently – her voice was so emotionless, so cold. It made me so mad. I wanted to smash through that wall of ice. Only… when I did… I realized she really was ice. A real wall of ice spikes… spraying from her hand…. My sister…. I had no idea. None." Anna shook her head, and wiped her eyes as she relived, for the two-dozenth time, the nightmare that had unfolded at the coronation ball. How she had snatched at her sister's glove, ripping it off as Elsa twisted out of her grip, then how her sister's… magic was the only word for it… had been revealed. The horror, the shock, the blood….

"I… I don't know what to say," Susan said, swallowing. "I'm sorry this had to happen. I really am."

"I'm just scared," Anna whispered. "I'm scared of what she is, what she's become. A… a…."

"A dangerous monster?" Susan asked. She shook her head. "No. She's not. And I should know," she added with a wry smile. "You shouldn't be scared of her."

"I'm not," Anna said after a long pause. "You're right. I'm not scared of her, whatever she's become. She's my sister. Whatever else has happened between us, she's still my sister. And I'm going to save her… from herself if necessary."

* * *

"General Monger, sir?"

The stocky soldier turned at the voice. "What is it?"

"The Prime Minister would like to see you, if you're free, sir."

Monger nodded. "Of course. Tell him I'll be right there."

"What does he want?" Link asked, looking up from his seat in front of the huge fireplace.

"A status report, of course," Monger snapped. "Doc! Haven't you analysed those readings yet?"

Cockroach looked up from his computer, and shook his head, his antennae swaying. "I must admit, for the moment, I am quite baffled. I've reviewed the security footage from the ball, but the quality is not as high as I would like—standard definition, not high definition, unfortunately."

"Well, can't you zoom in and enhance and all that stuff?" Monger asked.

Cockroach snorted. "You've been watching too much CSI: Cleveland," he said, rolling his eyes. "All you get when magnifying pixels is bigger pixels. There are various interpolation algorithms I am testing, but they are inconclusive." He sighed, rubbing his smooth head. "I really need the subject here in person to experiment on. Do you suppose, once she's back, Her Majesty would allow me to run a few tests on her?"

"Don't even suggest it," Monger said. "And that's an order. I won't have you accidentally turning another head of state into a baby by mistake." He picked up a thick manila folder and slipped it under his arm. "Right, I'm off to see the PM. Link, don't burn the place down."

"It's freezing in here!" the aquatic ape complained, tossing another log onto the flames. "Look at the thermometer! It's only twenty-five degrees!"

Cockroach sighed again, and shook his head. "Celsius, Link, not Fahrenheit. Twenty-five degrees Celsius is a balmy seventy-six degrees Fahrenheit."

"Well, why couldn't this silly thermometer say so?" Link asked.

"Do be quiet, there's a good chap," Cockroach said, running another program on his computer. He sighed. This was impossible. Queen Elsa had generated ice—huge quantities, and nearly instantaneously—from her hand. But how? All he could see on the security footage was a sudden bright glow in the air just in front of her palm, and then a stream of ice particles which quickly coalesced into huge spikes, spreading out in a semi-circle around the queen and pointing outwards, a deadly barrier between her and everyone else. What on earth was the mechanism? This defied everything he knew about physics, every law he knew.

He smiled to himself as he thought as Susan. Her size was a violation of multiple physical laws as well. But that was because the quantonium inside her was from another universe, and obeyed different laws. Could that be how Elsa got her powers? Could the queen be somehow causing a link between universes? But how? Susan had had a meteorite of quantonium fall on her, infusing her with it. How could the queen access this other universe, if indeed that was what she did? Cockroach sucked on the end of one of his antenna as he tried to make sense of nonsense. Perhaps there was—

"Ow! Ow!" Link suddenly shouted, jumping up and waving his tail around rapidly. "Hot hot hot!"

Cockroach watched in mild amusement as the tall, powerful fish-ape hopped around, batting at his tail where a burning ember had singed a hole in the webbing.

"Perhaps sit slightly further away," he suggested.

"But that's too cold!"

"Then wear something warmer—wear anything," Cockroach suggested.

Link looked down at his bare body, covered in green scales and some tufts of black hair on his chest. "What, cover up this perfection? You're mad!"

"I know," Cockroach said with a sigh. "That's why they call me a mad scientist. But if you don't shut up, I'll become a really mad scientist. At you…."

* * *

"Ah, General," the duke said, nodding as Monger entered the situation room that had been set up in a wing of the old castle.

"Prime Minister," Monger said, standing at attention.

"How goes the search for our queen, my niece?"

"I have had a report from Ginormica, sir. They are staying the night at a place called Oaken Mountain Supplies, and will continue on in the morning."

"So they should find Her Majesty tomorrow?"

Monger nodded. "According to our satellite images, they're nearly there."

"Can you actually see the queen in those things?" Ramberg asked, peering through his large round spectacles at the tablet Monger was holding.

"We cannot actually identify her, no," Monger said. "The cloud cover is too extensive. But we can trace the weather patterns, and the temperature changes. We know she is somewhere within a circle approximately three hundred metres in diameter, centred on this peak."

Ramberg's eyes narrowed. "Hmm. I see. Where is this Oaken place?"

Monger zoomed out on the map, and pointed. "Here."

"Where? There's nothing marked. Are you sure they're there?"

"Quite sure, Prime Minister. Ginormica is carrying a tracking device. Military-use GPS is very accurate. We can always find out where she is."

"So once they reach Her Majesty, you can always know where my poor niece is as well?"

Monger nodded. "Definitely. As long as Susan remains near her, that is."

Ramfurly looked down at the map, and the small blinking dot that marked the giantess's location. "How very reassuring, General," he said. "Heaven forbid anything should happen to them…."

"Don't worry, sir. Ginormica will keep her safe. You have my word."

The duke smiled thinly. "I feel most reassured." Then he nodded at the general. "In the meantime, I have to act as regent again. If you will excuse me, there are matters I must attend to. I'm afraid I am a very busy man. The country won't run itself, after all. Even once our queen is returned."

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

Sorry, but this is as close as I'm going to get to "Elsanna"...

"Vandrende" is Norwegian for "Wandering." So it's "Oaken Wandering" rather than "Wandering Oaken."

Logically, if Bob's intelligence is based on telepathy, he should be able to speak whatever language the people around him are speaking.

The Hooah energy bar is actually a real thing: a dairy-based calcium-enriched energy bar created by the United States military in 1996. It was originally provided to military personnel packaged within a field ration. The name comes from the word "hooah", an expression of high morale, strength and confidence. Wikipedia to the wescue….

The angle of the sun above the horizon is accurate for the middle of July at around 19:00 hours.

"CSI: Cleveland " is of course a riff on CSI: Miami. With a slightly less cool city…

And there are not that many Knowtes for this chapter. Life is pretty busy these days (this is always a busy time, work-wise, anyway) so I don't know how frequent updates will be, but I hope not more than a couple of weeks between chapters. A month at the outside...


	4. Born of Cold and Winter Air

**4\. Born of Cold and Winter Air**

"Brrrrrrrrrrb-b-b-b!"

Susan jolted awake at the sudden sound, blinking in the bright light that filtered through her tent.

"Rise and shine, it's mountain-climbing time!" called the blue blob.

She groaned. "Oh, that was you making that noise, Bob?"

"I'm an alarm clock!" Bob called, making himself into a round shape and whirling his arms around counter-clockwise.

"In that case," Susan said, flattening him under her hand, "turn on snooze mode."

"Pardon me, are you awake?" came Kristoff's voice from outside the tent.

"No," Susan replied. "What time is it?"

"Eight in the morning."

"It can't be," Susan muttered. She glanced at the clock she had been given by Monger, which was showing the time in Arendelle and Area 52. "Oh come on! It's only eleven at night back home!"

"My apologies," Kristoff called. "However, we must be going."

"Oh, I hate jetlag," Susan said, slowly crawling out of the tent. Squinting against the glare, she stood up, and looked around. The snow had stopped, the sky was clear, and the world was encased in white. The low sun was shining off the snow, refracting through the ice into a million tiny rainbows. It was a beautiful, silent, but deadly landscape.

Kristoff's eyes opened wide as he saw close-up the true size of the giantess, his head slowly swivelling up to follow her as she stood and stretched, yawning, her face five stories above the ground. Even when he had visited the Empire State Building in the United States, he had never felt such a sense of being dwarfed. After all, he expected skyscrapers to be tall. But a human, a woman? It was contradictory to everything he had ever known. It was impossible. A shiver of fear and awe ran through his spine, and he involuntarily took a step or two back.

Susan stretched, trying to work the kinks in her back out. She had slept fitfully at best, partially due to the jetlag and partially due to the continuous sunlight outside, which made her feel that it wasn't really night at all. "I wish I could have a shower," she muttered to herself, knowing it was impossible.

"I'm afraid this… might be, uh, difficult," Kristoff replied.

"Yeah, I know," Susan said. She gave him a quick smile. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"We can offer coffee or tea, at least," Anna called up, joining them.

"That would be nice. I could use a gallon or two," Susan said.

"Uh…. How much is a gallon?" Anna asked Kristoff.

He shrugged. "About five litres? I do not know, Highness."

"How much do you have?" Susan asked.

"Maybe one litre is left."

"Whatever. It'll do," she said, rubbing her temples. She wanted so badly to crawl back inside her tent and just sleep for another six or seven hours, but instead she took a deep breath, letting the cold, crisp mountain air percolate deep within her vast lungs, and then slowly exhaled. Then she quickly collapsed her tent and rolled it up, stuffing it into her backpack. Leaning her backpack against the trading shop, she sat down against it and began snacking on some more of the power bars Monger had given her.

"Good breakfast?" Anna asked, returning with a large jug of coffee.

"It's okay," Susan said. "It makes a change from the oatmeal they serve me at Area 52, at least. I'd prefer more chocolate in this, though."

"It's so… big," Anna breathed, looking at the power bar.

"So am I," Susan said with a grin.

"Yes, of course…. How long is that bar?"

"Six feet. About, uh, maybe two metres?" Susan started calculating on her fingers.

"A bit under," Anna said. "Here's all the coffee—it's still a bit hot."

"Thanks, Anna," Susan said, taking the jug carefully between her finger and thumb. "Er, I mean, thank you, Your Highness. Sorry. I didn't mean to insult you."

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Anna said. "I'm not a... what's the word? A snot."

"A snob," Susan said, trying not to giggle.

"Of course. Snob. Wait, snot's that stuff in your nose, right?" Anna gave a light laugh. "I'm certainly not that, I hope! So don't worry about calling me Your Highness or anything. I'm just Anna."

"Thanks," Susan said. "We don't have any princesses in America, so we don't really know how to act around them."

"Well, it's not much different here in Arendelle—we only have the one, at least now my sister's the queen," Anna joked as Susan downed the entire jug in a couple of gulps. "I'm sorry we have no more coffee. Kristoff will be wanting to leave soon. Are you ready?"

"I'd still like a shower, but that's not going to happen," Susan said. "So yeah, I'm ready. I'm glad the weather's better."

"It may not hold," Kristoff said, joining them. He added something in Norwegian to Anna, who nodded.

"He said we need to be prepared for anything," Anna said. "This is not natural weather, after all. We have no idea what will happen."

"Wow, I love surprises!" Bob said. "Hei, la oss gå!"

"Huh?" Susan asked.

"Let's go," Anna translated. "Come on! We have to find my sister!"

* * *

The small group made their way up the side of the mountain, following Kristoff, with Susan bringing up the rear. They were past the thickest part of the forest, so could move faster, but there were still some deep drifts that she had to wade through, while the others just skimmed over the top on their snowmobiles. Luckily none of the drifts were deeper than her thighs, and her immensely enhanced strength meant it was no harder than wading through a pool. The only awkward part was not being able to see the ground, so sometimes she would step on a loose rock and stumble, or find that the ground suddenly dipped. A couple of times she lost her balance and fell flat on her face in the soft snow while Bob laughed, and Anna did her very best not to.

The weather remained clear, though still bitterly cold, and they made good progress. As they climbed, the snow slowly changed, becoming deeper and shaped into a fantastic array of bizarre shapes, as if sculpted by giant children. Great icicles hung from the trees, sparkling in the sun, some of them so large they looked like pillars.

"This is really freaky," Susan muttered as the small group passed slowly through a narrow valley. The pine trees were covered in thick layers of snow and ice, but rather than hanging down, the icicles were pointed straight out, all in the same direction, as if some unimaginably powerful blast had distorted them.

"My sister's work," Anna said, her voice flat. "Just as well we weren't out here last night. Can you imagine getting one of these through you?"

"You don't think she'd hurt us, do you?" Susan asked, raising her eyebrows.

Anna glanced back from her snowmobile, and shook her head with a quick smile. "No, of course not; not deliberately. But she doesn't know we're coming, after all. We need to be prepared for anything."

"Why not give her a call?" Bob asked. "Then you could ask her not to freeze us."

Anna gave a short laugh. "She doesn't even have a phone, can you believe?"

"Wait, what? No phone?" Susan gasped. "How does anyone survive without a phone?"

"Said she didn't want one. I always figured she was just too anti-social. She certainly made enough sarcastic comments about how much I use mine. "Limt"—uh, "glued" was the word she used, actually."

"Hey, Susan, did you bring your phone?" Bob asked.

"Wait, what? You have a phone?" Anna asked, pushing her fur-lined hood back to look up at the towering giantess. "How can you use it?"

"Doc made me a special one, using a sixty-inch monitor, so even my fingers can use it. But I didn't bring it with me: I wanted to, but Monger was going on about roaming charges or something." She laughed. "Besides, this cool alien suit doesn't have any pockets."

"Oh look, I've been impaled!" Bob said calmly.

Susan stopped and looked back at the blue blob, who was examining the ice shard sticking through his body with interest, and rolled her eyes.

"You have not," she said. "You just weren't looking where you were going. Now stop being silly or I'll tell the General to take away your toybox privileges."

"Oh, nor I have," Bob said, slithering around the ice spike and following the others.

A low distant rumble sounded, and Kristoff held up his hand in warning.

"What is it?" Anna asked.

"An avalanche, Highness," Kristoff said after listening for a few moments. "Probably on the far side of this ridge. We need to be careful—this snowpack is unstable."

"Do you think my sister—do you think the queen's safe?" Anna asked nervously.

Kristoff looked at her, and smiled. "I am quite sure, Highness. Do not worry. You will see her soon, I promise. We should be at the peak by the afternoon."

A long, low howl cut through the morning air.

"I'm pretty sure that's not an avalanche," Anna said, turning pale as it was answered by another.

"Or a gas leak," Bob added. "I'm pretty sure it's not a gas leak. Wait…could it be a gas leak?"

"It's wolves," Kristoff said grimly. "Let's not hang around."

"Wolves?" Anna gasped.

"Could it be… wolves leaking gas?" Bob asked, just before Susan squished him to shut him up.

"Don't worry," she said with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure I can handle a wolf or two."

Anna looked back at the towering giantess, as tall as the scattered fir trees they were passing through. Compared to her, a wolf would be like a mouse attacking someone. There was probably nothing on this mountain that Susan could not handle.

But… did that also include her sister?

* * *

After another few hours, Susan was climbing carefully up towards a narrow ridge, guided by Kristoff and Anna in their snowmobiles. The blizzard had picked up, and as she crested the ridge, the full blast hit her square in the face. Spitting out a mouthful of snow, she got Bob to wrap himself thin across her eyes again, and peered through the driving snow.

"We must be nearly there!" Kristoff shouted. "Along this ridge, then we'll be at the base of Nordfjell peak! Where your General said the storm was centred!"

"That sounds easy enough. Now we just have to survive this blizzard!" Susan cried over the howling storm.

"That's no blizzard—that's my sister!" Anna shouted back.

"She's doing this? Why? Is she angry?"

Anna turned away from the gale, looking directly up at Susan. "No, not angry, I think. It's more like she's… she's afraid. I can tell."

"You can tell?" Susan asked. "From this?"

Anna nodded, wiping snow from her eyes. "She's trying to keep anyone from getting near her. She always did, especially when she was afraid of showing her emotions, of lowering her guard. Only… only this is a bit more than just turning away and slamming the door in my face."

"Yeah, she's slamming the mountain in our face," Bob said, then started choking as his mouth was filled with a gust of snow. He quickly absorbed it, and did his best to look as if he had meant to do that all along.

"Can you make it?" Anna asked Susan.

She nodded. "I'll be fine. Just… a bit slower, that's all."

"There! That's the peak!" Kristoff shouted, pointing.

Anna peered through the driving snow. "She's up there?"

"Looks like it," Kristoff said. He looked at the snowmobiles, then back at the steep ridge. "From here on, we go on foot. And we should be roped together for safety—this snowpack is very unstable, and could go at any time."

"What about Susan?" Anna asked, glancing up at the huge woman. "We could never hold her if she slipped."

The giantess bent down, holding out her hands. "Hop on guys. This'll make it easier."

"Yay! Pony rides!" Bob called, slithering up Susan's arm to her shoulder.

"It's safe, don't worry," Susan called down as Anna and Kristoff hesitated.

"Thank you so much," Anna said as she and Kristoff settled down into Susan's huge palms. Anna tightly gripped Susan's index finger, the size of a man's leg, as the ground fell away from under her. She found herself sitting, cupped safely, about ten metres off the ground. Then Susan started walking along the ridge, striding rapidly through the snow.

"Herregud! This is amazing!" Anna yelled. "We should have done this from the start!"

"Speak for yourself, Highness," Kristoff said, his face pale. "Oh, this is high!"

Susan laughed. "You're still lower than I am, up here."

Anna twisted to look up at the giantess's face, several metres above her. This was the closest she had seen Susan, and it was just as impressive seeing, close-up, the tremendous scale on which she was formed. How was it possible for a human to be so big? How did this alien stuff inside her work? The news reports had been short on details, only giving it a name.

"Susan, can I ask, what is quantonium?"

The giantess raised her eyebrows. "Huh? It's the stuff inside me."

"I know, but what exactly is it? How does it make you so large?"

"Oh, Gallaxhar explained that. It's from another universe, so it doesn't obey the physical laws of our universe. That's why I can be so big, but I can still function almost normally. Well, apart from my lower voice, and a few other things. I'm basically a walking violation of the square-cube law," she added with a grin.

"What's that?"

"It's… uh, it's a principle in physics, that… um, if you double the dimensions of something you… no, oh, yeah, the volume goes up eight times. And... strength is based on the cross-section of your muscles, so if you make something twice as big as normal, it only has half the strength, proportionately."

"And you're ten times bigger?"

"Nine times exactly," Susan said. "If it wasn't for the quantonium, I'd be dead: I couldn't stand, my lungs would collapse, my heart would fail…."

"And instead you can actually walk and all? It gives you normal strength for your height?"

Susan went slightly pink. "Actually I guess it makes me kind of super-strong. Like, I could easily lift, um, more than five hundred tons."

Anna's eyes went round as her mind tried to conceive of such titanic power. Five hundred tons? That was… that was…. Anna realized she didn't really know of anything that weighed that much. She remembered the American general telling her that Susan could lift the plane in the hangar, as impossible as it seemed. Clearly the giantess was immensely, fantastically strong beyond belief. What would it be like to be that strong, to know that no one on Earth could harm you? That no one could stop you? Was that what Elsa was feeling as she created this winter, freezing the entire land? That was also immense, fantastical power, of another sort. One that was even more destructive and deadly. Susan had clearly learned how to control and live with her power—so there was every hope that Elsa could as well. The thought reassured Anna as they continued up the mountainside.

* * *

They made slow but steady progress along the ridge, then passed beneath a cliff before coming out onto a more open area, above which the peak towered, close enough to almost touch.

"What's that?" Anna asked, nodding at a dark shape in the snow ahead of them.

Kristoff peered at it, then smiled. "It's a mountain hut. There'll be food and fuel in there. We can shelter from the snow, catch our breaths. Have some food."

"Oh, great idea!" Bob said. "Who wants to order out for pizza? I want ham on mine!"

"Bob, I don't think they can deliver in half an hour here," Susan said gently as the group arrived at the small wooden hut, half-buried in the snow. "Anna, you should take shelter in there—you're looking a bit cold."

"I'm fine," Anna said.

"With respect, Highness, your nose is turning blue," Kristoff said gently. "You should rest."

"Only for a bit," Anna allowed. "Then we keep looking for my sister."

"Of course," Susan said. "You rest. I'll be just outside."

"Sorry you can't fit, Susan," Anna said, looking up at the giantess.

Susan gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry—I told you, the cold doesn't bother me."

* * *

In a dark corner of a small, isolated mountain hut near the peak of the mountain, a slim pale woman was huddled, staring blankly at the far wall. She could hear the snowstorm howling around the wooden hut, the timbers creaking, and she prayed that they would hold. The snowstorm never seemed to stop, save during those random hours when she would fall asleep, exhausted. It abated from time to time, however, when she was able to think of happier things, and forget that she was a dangerous monster, a freak hated by everybody.

Because she was: the look in their eyes when her powers had been unleashed was burned into her memory. The shock, the horror, when her ice had sprayed out. The fear as they looked at her. The shouts and panic and confusion. The red blood on the pure ice….

And the snow. The constant snow. Almost as soon as she had left the castle, the snow had come. Fleeing the confused crowds, she had dashed across the rapidly-freezing fjord as fast as she could, knowing she was the centre of the storm, the cause of it, and hoping that by getting as far away as she could, her curse would leave her people alone.

Here, high on a remote peak, she prayed she was far enough away. Here, away from everyone else, she could remain safe, and, hopefully, keep her people safe. There was food and water in the hut: not much, or overly tasty, but enough to keep her going until she regained control. She needed time to think, to decide what to do. And where to go if she couldn't regain control….

She held up her hands. Her treacherous, dangerous hands. While her snow and ice could come from any part of her body, it was easiest to control it, direct it, with her hands. As a young girl, she had enjoyed creating tiny little snow flurries, making snowmen and even sending them dancing through her powers over ice and snow. Those had been such happy times, just her and her sister playing together. But then the accident had happened. Then she had nearly killed her sister… her darling, wonderful, innocent sister. The one good thing left in her life.

She felt tears prickle her eyes as she thought of her sister, tears that swiftly turned to ice, tinkling gently on the floor as they fell. That accident when they were both young had been the worst night of her life—at least until now. Ever since then, she had never been able to relax around her again. And to remind her, to help her control her powerful emotions, were the gloves she had to wear every waking moment: barriers to her magic, symbols of the inner barriers she needed to erect. She held up her hands and looked at them, examining the pale white skin, the blue veins visible beneath. Even now they looked strange so bare. Unnatural. Monstrous….

She gasped as the door to the hut was suddenly pushed open. A large shadow of a man blocked the entranceway, and she let out a small shriek, quickly cut off.

"Hey? Is someone there?" the man asked.

"Wait, is that you, Elsa?" came another voice, one that she knew all too well. To her astonishment, the red hair of her younger sister appeared from behind the tall man, shining like flame against the light. "Elsa! I found you!"

"A… Anna?" Elsa gasped.

"Of course it's me, silly!" Anna said, dashing into the hut as Elsa scrambled to her feet, backing away into a corner and clutching her treacherous hands to her chest.

"Anna, what are you doing here? Stay away, please!" She ducked around the simple bunk bed as Anna kept coming. "Go away! It's not safe—I'm a dangerous monster!"

"Don't be silly, Elsa! Of course you're not a monster!"

"Please!" Elsa begged, shoving her hands beneath her armpits. "Who is this man? You have to get out! It's too dangerous! Go away! Please!"

"Kristoff, can you leave us?" Anna asked, not looking around. "I think I should talk to my sister alone."

"We'll be right outside," Kristoff said, nodding.

Once the door was shut, leaving just her and Anna, Elsa slowly peeked around the bed at her sister.

"You should leave as well, Anna," she said quietly. "I'm… not safe. I don't want to hurt you, like I hurt those people at the ball."

"Don't be silly, Elsa," Anna said cheerfully. "I'm not going to leave you up here. You're my sister. Anyway, that was an accident. And no one was seriously hurt. Not really."

"I saw it," Elsa said, shaking her head. "I saw the Duc d'Beletteville get…."

"He's fine," Anna said. "The doctors say he won't even lose his arm. Everything's fine."

"Everything's not fine!" Elsa retorted, holding out her hands to show her sister. Ice was forming on them, and she flicked it off, sending it tumbling to the floor. "I'm dangerous!"

Anna gulped, then forced a smile. "No, you're not. Of course you're not."

"I am," Elsa said softly, staring at her hands. "I'm a danger to everyone. I don't want to hurt those I love." She looked back at Anna, willing herself to remain strong, remain calm. It was so hard—all she wanted to do was run up to the younger girl and fling her arms around her. But she couldn't—and she hadn't been able to for years. She had to be strong—just like she had always had to be, ever since….

Elsa fastened her blue eyes on Anna, and took a deep breath. "You shouldn't have come. Please, just leave me be."

"Oh, come on! Leave my own sister? You're just being silly! Now come on, let's go home!"

Elsa shook her head. "I… I can't. Don't you understand? I'll just bring the blizzard with me. No, it's better I stay far away where I can't do any damage."

"Well, it's too late for that," Anna said. "Pretty much the entire country is covered in snow. Deep, deep, deep, deep snow. The fjord's iced over, and Reine's completely cut off. You kind of set off an eternal winter, I guess."

"What!" Elsa gasped, taking a step back. "Reine? Eternal winter? But… I came all this way… why?"

Anna shrugged. "Don't ask me. You're the one with the magic powers. So come on, you can get just rid of the snow."

Elsa slowly shook her head. "No… I can't…."

"Sure you can," Anna said, smiling warmly. "I won't mind, promise!"

"No, it's not that," Elsa said, her heart thumping. The whole city was buried in snow? An eternal winter of ice and cold? The country ruined…. All those people suffering, freezing… because of her. Because she was a monster. "I can't! I can make it, but I can't unmake it! Unless it melts, I just can't. I can't…" she tailed off, looking at her hands and quickly thrusting them under her arms.

"Of course you can!" Anna said. "Here, look," she added, rummaging in her pockets. "I brought you these."

Elsa stared at the smooth white gloves her sister was holding out. "What do you mean?" she whispered.

"Just shove these back on, and it'll be like it always was," Anna said happily.

"Just… shove on the gloves? I don't believe you! You think it's that easy?" Elsa said, rather more snappishly than she intended to. "You think those can stop this winter? Can stop… me?"

"Sure. I mean, everything was fine before, right?"

"Everything was not fine!" Elsa retorted. Then she gave a short shriek, quickly bit off. A huge blue eye was staring at her through the hut's solitary window. It moved back a bit, and she saw it was part of a massive face, bigger than she was tall.

"Help! What…?" she gasped, staggering back.

"Elsa, please, keep calm!" Anna shouted. "Don't be afraid! That's only Susan!"

Elsa stared at her sister, her mind in a whirl. "Su—Susan?"

"The American giantess, remember? The one who saved the world from the aliens?"

Stunned, Elsa tried to get her brain to work, and was about to say something when a large blue blob oozed into the hut. A hole opened in the blob, and it greeted her in semi-fluent Norwegian.

"Hi! I'm Merkelig Geleaktig Masse, or MGM!"

"No! Get out! Go away! Leave me alone!" Elsa shrieked, ducking behind one of the bunk beds.

"Bob, could you excuse us?" Anna asked.

"Excuse you for what?"

"I mean, leave us."

"Leave you where?"

"In here, alone. Out!" Anna shouted, pointing to the door. "Hey, sorry about that," she added with a grin once Bob had left.

"What… what were they?" Elsa gasped.

"I told you—don't you remember that thing with the alien invader, Gallaxhar? Remember how there were these monsters kept in a secret base were brought out to help? Well, now they've come to help us—help you."

Elsa's heart skipped a beat. "You mean… to take me away? Hide me in a secret base?"

"No, no, of course not, don't worry," Anna said, holding her hands up placatingly. "We... well, it was Uncle Mustela's idea, really… we just wanted to find you, make sure you were safe."

"So you could lock me away?" Elsa asked, her eyes narrowed. "Because I'm a monster?"

"Elsa! Of course I don't think you're a monster!"

"Then why bring these Americans? I know what happened to the giantess! Gloves, monster hunters! You _are_ trying to imprison me! Hide me away where no one else will find me, alone!"

"Please, Elsa, calm down!" Anna cried, glancing around nervously as the temperature in the small hut rapidly plummeted. "I don't know what's got into you—I just want you back the way you were! My sister! I'd never leave you alone!"

"You always left me alone!" Elsa snorted. "You were always off partying, travelling, having fun being the princess—being the spare! While I had to do all the work, be the responsible one after Mamma and Pappa died!"

Anna flushed scarlet. "Don't you dare bring them up!" she spat. "You didn't care about them at all! You didn't even attend their funeral! How could you be so cold?"

Elsa felt the blood drain from her face as the memories of that horrible day resurfaced. The call from her uncle, and how she had almost lost control right then, and had been forced to run, to hide in her room to mourn alone, with no one to comfort her. Because of what she was…. A monster…. Who had destroyed her country, who had ruined everything. It was all her fault.

She could feel the ice gathering, spilling over the dam of her self-control. She could no longer hold it back—the sadness, the fear swirling within her were just too strong. "Get out! Now!" she screamed, the small hut suddenly filling with a blizzard of ice and snow. "Go! Run, Anna!"

Anna took one terrified look at the expression on her sister's face, the growing storm inside, and dashed for the door, slamming it behind her as the frost spread swiftly out from Elsa, covering the entire hut as the blonde girl collapsed on the floor, sobbing bitter tears of ice.

The frost penetrated into the worn timbers, spreading, pushing them apart, growing and growing; inexorable, unstoppable as a glacier….

* * *

"Highness!" Kristoff shouted as Anna struggled through the snow towards them, while the noises from the hut grew louder and louder; shrieks and groans of ice growing, splintering the old wood. Susan dashed forward and scooped up Anna just as the hut burst asunder.

"Elsa!" Anna shrieked, grabbing Susan's thumb and looking back at the hut, which was now a collection of timber stuck in ice, barely visible beneath a snowstorm.

"She'll be fine—it's her ice!" Kristoff called. "It won't hurt her! But we have to get out!"

Ugly jagged spikes grew out from the snow, stabbing up randomly. Susan quickly stepped back, kicking some down to clear a path.

"Kristoff! Run!" she shouted.

They quickly retreated as the blizzard grew worse, forming a dense, whirling cylinder around where the hut had been. Then more massive spikes of ice stabbed up from the snow, growing taller and thicker, supporting on their tips a giant sheet of ice like a single massive snowflake. Stumbling down the mountainside, Anna held carefully in her hands, Susan glanced back and saw a tall, forbidding fortress take shape, festooned with spikes and spires of dark ice stabbing out in random directions. Above and around it a small localized storm raged, shooting forth a torrent of snow high into the sky, where it reached up to the low clouds and spread. Lightning flashed, again and again, and almost immediately afterwards came the thunder, so loud and close Susan could almost feel it inside her.

Suddenly a loud crack ripped through the air, followed by a thunderous boom. Kristoff halted, holding his hand up. He shouted something in Norwegian at the princess, who looked very scared and then stared up at the mountain.

"What is it?" Susan called.

"Avalanche!" Kristoff shouted. "We have to get back to the snowmobiles!"

Susan could now see a massive cloud of snow tumbling down the side of the mountain straight towards them. She quickly stooped and grabbed Kristoff, holding him and Anna tightly.

"We won't make it!" Susan yelled, panic in her voice as she struggled through the deep snow.

"We must! Faster!" Kristoff shouted back.

"It's too late!" Anna screamed.

Susan glanced to her left. The avalanche was almost on them, and the snowmobiles were still too far away. There was only one thing she could do.

"Hang on!" she shouted, turning to face the onrushing snow and planting her feet as firmly as she could, bracing herself for the impact. The avalanche front hit Susan in the chest like an exploding bomb. With nothing to hold onto, unable to use her arms, she was powerless to resist the force of the snow. It flung her back like a rag doll, and she crashed down heavily, tumbling. Anna and Kristoff fell from her grip and hit the mountainside, rolling down the slope. As Susan futilely groped for Kristoff, Bob immediately stretched himself out and grabbed Anna, hauling the unconscious girl back in a split second before the avalanche overwhelmed them.

The snow rolled over Susan like a tsunami, a great white wave that pounded at her, pushing her, battering her. Her mouth and nose were full of snow, and she couldn't see a thing. Desperately she struggled to get to the top, to get upright. She managed to brace a foot against a rock, levering herself up so her torso was above the snow, but it just kept coming.

Bob had wrapped himself around Anna, holding her tightly to Susan's left hand. The giantess kicked out at the snow, trying to stay upright and climb over the front, but it was almost impossible. She was slowly but surely being forced back, towards a sheer cliff. Susan started to panic. Her nose and mouth were filled with snow, she could barely see, and the mountainside was a smooth, icy slope. Slowly, inexorably, she was being pushed to the edge. They were going to fall, and she was utterly unable to save them.

With a jolt of almost blinding fear, Susan felt her feet go out from under her as she was pushed off the cliff. Flinging herself forwards, she scrabbled desperately for a grip. She just managed to grab a rocky outcrop as she was hit by another wave of heavy snow and tossed right off the cliff. She barely kept her grip on the rock as she was flung out and over the ravine, then slammed back down painfully into the cliff. Hanging onto the outcrop with one hand, dangling high over the sheer precipice, she held the semi-conscious princess, with Bob wrapped around her, under her breasts, sheltering her from the snow as much as she could. She was powerless to do anything else but hang on one-handed with all her might as thousands of tons of snow crashed over her with a deafening roar, and hope that she was strong enough to withstand the Snow Queen's power...

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES:**

Okay, I admit it, I always wanted to write an actual, literal cliffhanger….

And yeah, I couldn't omit the "I've been impaled" bit, considering Bob's basically like Olaf in that sense. The "shove on the gloves" thing is another bit from Frozen, from the deleted song "Life's Too Short" (from when Elsa was rather more antagonistic as she ended up being in the movie). Also, "That's no blizzard—that's my sister!" is taken from one of the promos for the movie.

"Hei, la oss gå" means "Hey, let's go!" according to proz com and a number of other sites. "Herregud!" means "Holy God!" and is the Norwegian equivalent of "Oh my God!" And "Merkelig Geleaktig Masse" is mostly Norwegian for "Strange gelatinous mass." At least I hope it is: I know "Geleaktig Masse" is right, as I have found several uses of it (including in the Norwegian Wikipedia article on _The Blob_ , the film), but I'm not sure about the grammar for "Merkelig." Any corrections are most welcome, especially if I can keep "MGM" (or anything better).

When I write from Susan's POV, I use Imperial measurements, as she's used to those, but when writing from Anna's POV, I use metric.

Area 52 is in Nevada, if there are any people reading this who haven't read my MVA stories. It's basically next door to Area 51 (logically enough).

Susan's height actually works out very nicely. Her official height is 49 feet 11 inches, which is precisely nine times higher than 5'6". The square-cube law is as stated—it's why, barring super-materials, something the size of Susan is pretty well impossible. Which is why I decided to make quantonium be from another universe, so it can literally follow different physical laws. Gallaxhar's explanation of quantonium is actually from my retelling of the film, but I added it in here as it works as an explanation, more or less, and doesn't actually require knowledge of the movie (rather, those with knowledge of the movie might be the ones raising their metaphorical [or literal] eyebrows). Susan's lower voice is another part of my head canon about her: while quantonium clearly affects her physiology, allowing her to actually live and breathe, I wanted to have some physical effect on her, so lowered her voice, as befitting a huge creature with a huge mouth.

This Elsa is not the movie Elsa, remember. There wouldn't be as much interest (for me, at least) in making her identical. She is of course very similar, otherwise she wouldn't be Elsa. The trick is to make her the same yet different, which isn't always easy.

The avalanche is my take on Marshmallow. Instead of creating a living creature, Elsa's power is limited to snow and ice (as it should be; creating living creatures is a whole 'nuther ballgame), so she (accidentally) creates an avalanche. The effect, however, is more or less the same.

Sorry for the delay. February has been very busy, and I haven't had much time to write. This one was also a bit tricky to write, especially the confrontation between Elsa and Anna. I had to ramp up Elsa's emotions and fears to make it plausible that she would lose control like that. Anyway, with luck, the next chapter won't be quite so delayed….


	5. More Than Just the Spare

**5\. More Than Just the Spare**

"No, no, no, no!" Elsa screamed, blasting torrents of ice from her fingertips. Her power hurtled through the air into the ground, great shards of ice spinning high, spiralling in frozen fractals all around her. "Get out! Out!" she shouted, her pale face pink with the effort of concentrating, of desperately willing all the ice inside her, all her magic, to be expelled where it could do no harm, leaving her an ordinary girl. One who could have a sister again.

But no matter how massive the towering walls of ice around her grew, her ice still kept coming, with no sign of any decrease. Frustrated and exhausted from trying, the young queen flung herself sobbing on the floor, while her lonely fortress grew ever darker, ever more encrusted with jagged raw spikes, a towering, ominous presence on the highest reaches of the mountain.

* * *

Anna moaned weakly, and her eyes slowly flickered open. The world seemed blurry, and all she could see was a gigantic dark blue wall, decorated with gold stripes and points. Where was she? What had happened? Why did her arm hurt so much? She tried to sit up, but found herself unable to move. Something was holding her down. Blinking snow out of her eyes, she realised she was enveloped by a firm yet yielding blue mass. A large red eye floated in the mass, and then winked at her.

"Wasn't that amazing fun?" it asked. "Let's go again!"

Anna suddenly remembered where she was: she wasn't having a weird dream after all. They had been caught in an avalanche and… had she blacked out? Then she realised she was cradled in a massive hand, and the blue wall was actually the torso of the American giantess, Susan.

"Hello?" she called up, unable to see past the swell of the huge breasts that had sheltered her from the snow.

"Oh, thank god!" came Susan's deep, powerful voice as the hand holding her moved slightly, and she could see the giantess smiling down at her. "Are you all right?"

"Fine. My arm's sore." Anna looked around again, and saw the rock face just a metre or so away. "What happened? Where are we?"

"We… er, almost fell off the cliff," Susan explained, carefully lifting Anna up.

The princess glanced down, and barely suppressed a scream. Susan was dangling from the top of a sheer precipice that must have been a hundred metres high. Far below was a pile of rumpled snow, with a few trees sticking out of it that must have been uprooted in the avalanche.

"I'm going to let you off now," Susan said, and Anna quickly looked away from the drop, over to the slope as she was brought carefully over the edge, and gently deposited on the ground. Bob slithered off her, and she staggered, then sat down heavily on the snow.

"Oh my God…" she stammered, the shock hitting her. Then she looked around, her heart suddenly in her mouth. "Kristoff! Kristoff!"

"We'll find him," Susan called up. "He got buried in the snow."

"Buried? How can we get him out?"

"Just let me get back up, then we'll look for him," Susan called.

Anna looked over at the huge hand clinging to the rocky outcrop. "I… I couldn't pull you up. Not a hope. Maybe if we had the snowmobiles…."

"No, that's okay. Er, could you move back a bit?"

Anna moved back several metres, watching the hand, which was all she could see of Susan.

"You can make it?"

"No problem," Susan called. With her other hand she groped through the snow, grabbing a protruding rock, and then quickly levered her entire body up, springing gracefully into the air then landing with a heavy thump on the edge of the cliff, looking down at Anna and Bob as she shook off the last of the snow.

"We have to find Kristoff! Hurry, please!" Anna cried.

"We will. Bob, keep an eye on the princess. No, not I do not mean literally give her your eye, either," Susan ordered, crouching down as Anna shrank back from the red eyeball Bob had quickly offered her. Staying several metres away from the gelatinous mass, she watched Susan gently scoop up the snow with her five-foot hands, sifting each huge handful carefully to see if the mountain guide was there. As Susan rapidly but smoothly cleared the area around them, probing as she went, Anna watched in amazement. The titanic woman was more powerful than a bulldozer, rapidly shoving tonnes upon tonnes of snow around like it was so much foam on a cappuccino.

"I have him!" she suddenly called, gently lifting the blond man out of the snow. "Are you all right?"

"I am very good, considering," he said, wiping snow from his face. He looked around. "The princess! Where's the—oh, there you are, Your Highness. Praise the gods that you are safe!"

"She's hurt a bit," Susan said, sitting back on her heels.

"Hurt?" Kristoff gasped. "Highness, where? How badly?"

"It's nothing," Anna said, cradling her left arm. "I probably just have a nasty bruise. I'm well-padded in all this clothing, and it was snow I landed on."

"Highness, I'm so sorry I dropped you," Susan said, biting her lip. "I should have held on tighter. I guess I was just afraid of crushing you."

"Nothing to apologize for, Susan," Anna said. "Without you, I'd have been swept over the edge or buried in the snow. And I told you, you can call me Anna."

Susan gave the princess a quick smile. "Thanks, Anna. I'm sorry, anyway."

Kristoff shook his head. "You have saved the life of our princess. Arendelle is very grateful to you. Highness, we really should get you to a hospital."

Anna shook her head. "Not while my sister is still up here. I have to get her back."

"But how? It is too dangerous! We were almost killed! Highness, the Snow Queen is dangerous!"

"Don't call her that!" Anna snapped.

"Er, no, of course not, Highness. Please forgive me," Kristoff said, bowing his head low.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have spoken like that," Anna said, giving him a quick smile. Then she shook her head. "Anyway, this was an accident. I know Elsa would never want to hurt me."

Kristoff looked up towards the peak, now shrouded in cloud. "Even if it was an accident, it's still too dangerous. Queen Elsa cannot control herself, unfortunately."

"We have to try again. We can't just leave her up here!" Anna gave a wry smile. "Who else would be queen? Me? No thanks! Princesses have all the fun, anyway! So we have to get her."

"Highness, I am sorry, but without the snowmobiles, and our supplies, we truly cannot stay up the mountain. We could not survive a night out here. We have no food, no shelter. Nothing."

"Fy fæn!" Anna spat, forgetting for a moment she was supposed to be an elegant princess. "What are we going to do? Kristoff, do something! Find the snowmobiles! Where did you leave them?"

"I, er…" he stammered, looking around the mountainside. "I think perhaps the snowmobiles are down there, Highness," he said, pointing over the edge of the cliff.

Anna made a face. "Drit i det! That pink one was my favourite. Now what?"

"We have no choice. We must walk," Kristoff said gently.

"I could carry you. And I'm sure I can move as fast as a snowmobile," Susan said, getting to her feet. "I mean, I might even be able to move faster. If only I could contact the general."

"Oh, I still have my radio communicator," Kristoff said, patting one of his pockets.

Anna smiled. "Really? Good. Contact my uncle, the Prime Minister. See if things have got better or worse in Reine. And ask if they can send a helicopter with supplies—the weather's not that bad now."

"Of course."

"And, er, what about your sister?" Susan asked while Kristoff was trying to get through.

"I really don't want to leave without Elsa," Anna said slowly. Then she grimaced, looking around at the swath the avalanche tore across the mountain. "But I don't think we have much choice. If we can't get more supplies, we might have to leave her." The young princess made a face. " _Hva i_ _helvete_ … I mean, what the hell did she have to go and set off an eternal winter for?"

"I… er, I don't think she meant to," Susan said. "She just… over-reacted, I guess."

"Over-reacted?" Anna shook her head. "Elsa? She never over-reacted to anything. She never reacted to anything, frankly. Just cold, emotionless ice." She sighed. "That was how she always was, you know? So many times I tried to be nice to her, invite her out, get her to have some actual _fun_ for once in her life! Come partying with me to Nice, perhaps—would you believe she's never even left Arendelle? I would try to be friendly, be the good sister, have fun like we used to as kids, and she would just freeze me out! Literally, now," she added with a bitter laugh.

"She's afraid," Susan said softly, easing herself down beside the princess.

"Afraid? But why?" Anna asked. She slumped down on the snow, and sighed. "I don't understand. What is she so afraid of? She can't think I'd want to hurt her, right? My own sister?"

"She's afraid of hurting you, I guess," Susan said "I guess I can understand. I mean, look at me. I can crush a car with one hand. What do you think would happen if I got mad? If I went on a rampage? King Kong, Godzilla, that sort of thing—hundreds, maybe thousands hurt. So I have to make sure I never lose my temper and get violent. And I guess the same applies to Elsa. If you're scared of losing control, you end up spending a lifetime trying to perfect that control. Especially if you have a sister you love," she added softly, looking down at the princess.

Anna glanced up at Susan, raising an elegant eyebrow. "You want mine?" she asked, then gave a short laugh. "I wish I still knew how to talk to her," she said quietly. "I wish we were children again…."

"Highness!" Kristoff called.

"What is it?"

"The Prime Minister says they can send out a helicopter with more supplies."

"Fantastic!" Anna exclaimed. "How soon?"

"It will be ready to fly in half an hour," Kristoff said, walking over. He looked up at the sky, which was overcast. "I hope the weather holds."

"How long will it take?" Anna asked, glancing up as well.

"Ah, well, in a direct line from Reine, we're about ten kilometres, so it would only need about five or ten minutes to get here."

Anna's eyes opened wide. "We're only ten kilometres from Reine? It took us two days to get here!"

Kristoff smiled. "Alas, we cannot fly. We had to take the long way. Highness, we had better head off to the other side of the ridge, where they can land safely."

"Allow me," Susan said, bending down and holding out her hands. Anna and Kristoff got on, Anna eagerly and Kristoff more gingerly, and then the giantess stood erect and started climbing through the loose chunks of snow.

"Over there, please," Kristoff said, pointing, once they crossed over the ridge. On the other side was a flatter area, and beyond it Susan could see a fjord down to the right, then, rising behind it, another range of snow-covered mountains, craggy and forbidding. Off to the left was another fjord, coming in from the north. Both fjords were frozen over, their surfaces white with snow.

"Beautiful," Susan breathed.

"It is, in winter," Anna told her. "Unfortunately, this isn't winter."

"It's still beautiful, anyway," Susan said.

Anna gave a short laugh, devoid of joy. "You're a city girl, aren't you?"

"Uh, well, I guess," Susan said slowly, not sure what the princess meant. "I mean, Modesto is a small city, I guess, but it is a city. I think we have about 200,000 people."

"So your _small_ city has ten times the population of our entire country," Anna said. "No wonder you do not understand."

"Understand what?"

Anna sighed. "It's summer now—or it's supposed to be. Many farmers had their stock grazing on the hills. They will have lost thousands of animals in this freeze. It is a disaster to our economy."

"Oh," Susan said, biting her lip. "Of course. I'm so sorry. I didn't think. Do you think El—the queen knows?"

Anna nodded. "She knows. One thing no one could ever say about Elsa is that she's stupid—well, I did, often, but not in that way. She knows everything that happens in her kingdom."

"So she knows just how badly her snow is affecting Arendelle's economy? Why doesn't she stop this winter then?"

"I don't know which is worse," Anna said after a short pause. "She does know and doesn't care, or she does know and it's making her even more afraid. But even if she can stop this winter, Arendelle will suffer for years. How many farmers will be driven out of work? We are a small country—wool, timber, cod, and some North Sea oil are all we have. This is a greater problem than just one missing queen…."

* * *

The wind howled softly around the harsh, jagged ice pillars that formed a titanic structure of ice, a solid, impenetrable fortress. At its heart, in a small, gloomy chamber where little light could penetrate the thick ice, Elsa was hunched over, sobbing. It was all over, she knew. She had done it this time—pushed her sister away, shown her the monster that she really was. All because she could not control her powers. Powers that had been such fun once, but now were a true curse.

She gradually noticed how her tears were creating tiny stalagmites of ice on the floor, and quickly sat up, horrified, sweeping them away with her hand.

"No, no, Elsa," she whispered to herself. "Control! Push the emotions away!"

She took a series of deep breaths, her eyes closed, then opened them again, confused at what she was seeing around her. She had not really been consciously aware of what she was doing when she had tried to exhaust her powers—all she wanted to do was create as much ice as possible. But now she was inside it, deep beneath the dark blue ice, which seemed to shift and ripple as the light refracted through it. She had never seen so much ice before.

Suddenly she felt an immense calm descend on her, filling her with a sense of peace. Slowly, she rose and started walking over to the wall, then stopped and looked down at her feet. She was still wearing the elegant shoes she had worn for her formal coronation, but now she slipped them off, and stood on the freezing ice in her bare feet. The ice felt smooth and cool, and she felt strangely energized.

Padding silently across to the wall, she laid her hands on it, feeling the slick surface. It seemed almost alive, a welcoming, relaxing presence. She pressed gently, and the ice wall swung open, revealing another chamber, a vast high space, with light flooding down from the ornately interlocking crystals that formed the ceiling. This had all come from her? How had she made this? Elsa had long had a love of the cool, geometric lines and patterns of architecture, and would spend hours creating her own fantasy palaces and castles. But she had never expected to ever find herself in one. This was all from her power? This was what she could do? She had never even dreamed what she was truly capable of. This was her ice, her creation. Her will embodied, hers to do with as she wished. Because she was the Snow Queen….

Slowly, cautiously, Elsa made a gesture. Her hand glowed, and a flurry of snow spun out, twirling into a small snowman. She giggled briefly, then clapped her hands to her mouth and shook her head. Not a snowman, no—that was what she had used to make for Anna, back before… before that night. That could never happen again—she was a monster; her power was dangerous, not some toy to amuse children.

A quick, furious blast of ice disintegrated the snowman, scattering his body across the floor, and Elsa hurried past, not looking back. She looked up, and it was almost as if she no longer had to think: the ice grew under her feet, forming a staircase that swiftly rose, lifting her up to the light. She stopped about halfway up, and with a great sweep of her hand, opened up a another door in the ice wall. She directed glowing streamers of ice to create another chamber, elegant and delicate, and, with a final sweep, encircled it with a balcony. It was so easy—she barely had time to consciously become aware of what she wanted before it took form, in pure, coldly mathematical crystals of ice.

She stepped out, breathing the cold thin air deep into her lungs, then gasped as she saw a wide trail of destruction: the unmistakable aftermath of an avalanche. She vaguely remembered hearing its roar as the storm raged on, the storm her fear and anger had caused. The avalanche had swept down the mountainside, scouring it clean—the same mountainside where, just a short while ago, her sister had been fleeing from her in fear. There was no sign of her now; nothing was moving at all on the desolate mountainside.

Horrified, Elsa staggered back inside and slammed the doors, unable to face the sight. But she was unable to push away the fear as easily as she had pushed away her sister. The ice was hers—and she was the ice. It all seemed so clear now: she truly was a monster; she was indeed the dreaded Snow Queen of legend. A dangerous, inhuman monster… who had destroyed her country, and betrayed those she had loved. There was no going back for her now—or ever….

As Elsa started to weep again, snowflakes slowly filled the sky, hanging in place as if time itself was holding its breath.

* * *

A low rhythmic thumping grew louder, and Susan turned around to see a purple helicopter flying in low and fast. It came in smoothly, turning as it did, revealing a crocus crest on its door. Susan kept well back, and watched as two men came out and went over to Anna. They exchanged a few words, then Anna suddenly looked angry, and started shouting at them. Susan couldn't understand the Norwegian, but the young princess seemed very upset.

"What's going on, Kristoff?" Susan asked quietly, seeing the frown on the mountain man's face.

"It seems that the Prime Minister is demanding Her Highness return to Reine."

"What!" Susan gasped. She stared at the two men, who were now half-guiding, half-pushing Anna to the waiting helicopter. It would be so easy to stop them. Even if they were armed, she could take them out with a single sweep of her arm. But no—she shook her head, remembering what Monger had said. They were here to find the queen and stop the winter, and not to interfere in internal matters beyond that.

"Where's Anna going?" Bob asked, looking worried.

"She's… er, she's just going to see her uncle," Susan said. "I'm sure she'll be back soon. No, Bob! Don't try and go with her!" she added, quickly grabbing the blue blob. She watched the helicopter head off, gradually growing fainter, and sighed. "What now?"

"We cannot stay here," Kristoff said. "Not without supplies."

"And Elsa? We can't leave her!"

He looked up at her, and shrugged. "I doubt I could persuade her where her own sister could not. We need to return to Reine and come back with the princess."

"And more food," Bob added. "Lots more food. I'm hungry, and this white stuff isn't very tasty. It looks like marshmallow, but doesn't taste like marshmallow."

"What about the queen?" Susan asked, studiously ignoring Bob. "Won't she be hungry?"

Kristoff gnawed at his lip. "Well, there's the supplies that were in the hut—they should be enough for a while. We'll be back before Her Majesty needs to worry."

"We will? How long will it take to get back to Reine?"

"We don't have the snowmobiles," Kristoff noted. "It will take… longer. Two nights?"

Susan shook her head. "We don't have two nights. We have to get there as fast as possible. I'll carry you."

"But how long can you manage?"

"Long enough," Susan said, giving him a wry grin. "I'm pretty strong, after all…." She bent down to allow him to sit on her hand.

"Wait, Susan, where's your hunchback?" Bob suddenly called.

"My what?" Susan gasped, staring down at the blue monster in disbelief.

"Your hunchback!" he said, then frowned. "No, your lunch pack… I think."

"Oh, my backpack?" Susan exclaimed, then made a face. "Crap. I think I left it back up by the hut—er, where the hut was. Wait here, guys—I'll be right back!"

"And so will I!" Bob called, slithering up Susan's leg, then stretching across to her arm.

The giantess carefully made her way along the ridge, leaving Kristoff waiting on the flat. After about ten minutes she was nearing the massive ice fortress. Susan looked up at its forbidding blue walls, rising sheer from the snow, and swallowed. What kind of power could create that?

"I don't see your packback anywhere," Bob said. "Hey, do you think it was eaten?"

"Eaten? What by?"

"That," Bob said, pointing with a ten-foot-long arm.

Susan looked over, and laughed. A huge snow statue, at least thirty feet tall, was standing outside the fortress.

"You know, Bob, I think we've found the way in," she said, moving closer. The statue was guarding a massive double door of ice, equally tall. "Or the way in for anyone who isn't fifty feet tall, I guess."

"Hey, do you think anyone's home?" Bob asked, joining her.

"One way to find out," Susan said, bending down and knocking on the door with the knuckle of one finger. She could hear the gentle knock echoing through the structure, sounding almost as if it was growing louder.

Then the doors slowly swung open….

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Mr Prime Minister?"

"Just Prime Minister will do, General," the Duke of Ramberg said, settling into his large purple leather chair. He waved Monger to the smaller chair in front of his large, ornate desk, piled high with papers. "Excuse the mess. Running a country involves a lot of paperwork."

"I understand perfectly. I'm sure work is even harder in the absence of the queen," Monger said.

"Oh, no, that's not a problem. Don't worry about that," Ramberg said, giving the general a quick smile that barely curled his lips. "Please, sit," he added, gesturing at the smaller chair.

"What was it you wanted to see me about?"

"I've just had a very disturbing report from Reinsdyr, the local mountain guide. It appears that Her Highness has been caught in an avalanche set off by her sister."

"Is she all right?" Monger asked quickly, leaning forwards.

The duke shook his head. "She's been hurt, and I'm sending a helicopter to bring her back immediately." His face darkened. "I should never have let her go up there! Alone, into the mountains to confront a dangerous monster!"

"Her sister, you mean?" Monger asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ramberg snorted. "Her sister has revealed her true form—she is a monster. She cannot be reasoned with, that is plain. If her own sister cannot persuade her, then no one can. No, we need to face the facts. And the facts are simple. On behalf of the government of Arendelle, I formally request that you take custody of the former Queen Elsa von Oldenburg-Arndalen, and hold her in your monster base, where she can be given the care she needs."

"You… you want us to take her?" Monger gasped, staring. "But we can't just take people—not any more. The president—" His eyes narrowed. " _Former_ queen? What do you mean?"

Ramberg sighed, spreading his hands wide. "Elsa cannot rule in her present state. And we will not help the poor girl by pretending otherwise. No, she needs the care that only the American military can provide. Here is the formal written request from the Storting," he added, handing Monger a short document in Norwegian.

Monger blinked. "The sorting?"

"The Storting. Our word for parliament. Please contact your giantess, and tell her to secure Elsa. Hmm. Elsa…?" He paused, and gave the astonished general a quick smile. "You like to give your monsters names, do you not? How about Snødronningen?"

"The name is not—"

"I'm sorry, excuse me," Ramberg said, holding up his hand as the intercom buzzed. "Hva vil du? Er dronningen sammen med deg? Det var raskt. God."

"Is there a problem, Duke?" Monger asked.

The older man smiled. "None at all. The helicopter I sent is returning. If you will excuse me, I must be there to ensure my darling niece's safety."

* * *

Buffeted by strong winds, the chopper circled down and landed hard and fast, skidding briefly on the icy ground before grappling hooks were thrown around its landing legs, holding it. The pilot braked the rapidly-whirling blades, and several men hurried up to open the door to the passenger compartment.

"I demand you take me back immediately!" came a loud cry from Anna as she clambered out. "What do you mean by forcing me to return? I demand you obey me! I am your princess!"

"No, Anna. You are our queen," Ramberg said, walking up to her.

Anna stopped and stared at her uncle, her eyes wide. "What?"

"Your sister cannot be queen—she is in no fit state to rule. A monster, hiding out on a remote mountain peak? The poor child is troubled, and needs proper help—the sort we cannot offer. An emergency meeting of the Storting was convened, and her abdication was deemed necessary. She will be taken care of in America. You are our queen now."

Before Anna's stunned eyes, the duke and the guards and soldiers all bent down on one knee, bowing their heads.

"Long live Queen Anna! Long Live the Queen!" they cried.

"No… no… please…" Anna stammered, staggering back from them. "No! You can't do this! Elsa's the queen! My sister's the queen! I'm not—I'm… I'm just the spare!"

"If you will forgive the impertinence, Majesty," the duke murmured. "Your sister being… different… is precisely why your royal parents knew they would need a spare…."

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

Attentive readers might have spotted a few references to song lyrics. It's a minor indulgence of mine at times to try and squeeze in lyrics as part of the prose, but I hope it is never too distracting.

Some translations for the Norwegian. I hope these are used correctly.  
Fy fæn = God dammit! (Fucking hell!)  
Drit i det = Screw that!  
Hva i helvete = What the hell  
Hva vil du? Er dronningen sammen med deg? Det var raskt. God. = What do you want? Is the queen with you? That was fast. Good. (This also contains a minor clue to the twist at the end for those who understand Norwegian and are paying attention – so I think it was very safe to give this clue….)  
I could have glossed over the Norwegian, but I thought it was a minor intellectual challenge to try and get it right (assuming I have). I've checked as much as possible, and Google Translate provides both translations (i.e. the English translates to the Norwegian, which translates back to the English), and tried to find examples in use.

I was tempted to have the statue actually be Marshmallow, but I decided against it. It would just confuse things. While I would like to have Susan fight Marshmallow, let's face it: he's snow and she's a much taller and immensely powerful giantess. She would turn him to powder without even breaking stride. Although he could presumably also grow, as there's plenty of snow….

Can parliament force a queen to abdicate? I checked with the example I know best, Queen Elizabeth II (I don't mean I actually asked her), and yes, apparently it is possible in extraordinary circumstances.

One issue _Frozen_ itself didn't really look at was the economic effects of this sudden winter. In addition to the frozen fjords, the livestock would be devastated. All this will merely add onto Elsa's burden of guilt, which is such a richly dramatic thing to write about.

Oh, and "von Oldenburg-Arndalen" is the name of the royal family of Arendelle in my _Frozen_ stories. It pairs one of the oldest and most extensive noble family names (Oldenburg) with the archaic form of Arendelle. The "von" is what is referred to as a "nobiliary particle," which used to signify nobility in a number of European languages including Norwegian (according to Wikipedia, at least).

March is really busy with work and other things that must take precedence like taxes. I doubt the next chapter will be complete before the month is out. But I shall keep writing….


	6. Cut Through the Heart

**6\. Cut Through the Heart**

"Anna? Is that you?"

Elsa slowly approached the doors to her ice castle, hoping against hope that her sister had returned. Then she gasped. The view out was blocked by a massive blue shape that she realised, when a face taller than she was dropped into view, was the American giantess. Elsa froze: they had come for her, they must have.

"Your Majesty?" came a deep, powerful voice in English.

"Go away!" she shouted. "Please…" she added in a quieter voice.

"Er, Queen Elsa? Your Majesty?"

"Stay away! I'm warning you!" Elsa called, eyeing what she could see of the titanic woman through the door. She would not be captured, she told herself. If she had to, she would defend herself with all she had. She was as strong and unstoppable as a glacier…. She raised her arms, generating a swirl of glowing snow, as she warily approached the door. The scale of the giantess was almost unbelievable—she looked like she would be able to smash down the fortress without even trying.

"Queen Elsa, please! I don't mean you any harm! My name's Susan, I'm from America! I came here with your sister!"

"You're one of the monsters—you've come to kidnap me, haven't you?"

Ginormica shook her head. "No, of course not! We'd never kidnap you! Er, not that we wouldn't want you, of course; I'm sure you're very nice and all, but I mean we wouldn't want you there if you didn't want to be there. Sorry, I'm not being very clear…."

"Then why are you here? Why did you come here with Anna? Where is she? Where's my sister? What have you done with her?"

"She had to go back," Ginormica said. "You, er, kind of set off an avalanche, and we lost our supplies. And Anna got hurt."

"No! Please, not Anna! Oh, not again! Oh, Anna, what have I done?" Elsa whispered, dropping her hands. The snow drifted down to the floor, and she turned away, a lump in her throat.

"Queen Elsa? It's not serious, don't worry!" Ginormica called. "She's fine! Honest! It's just a sore arm!"

"Please, you can't help me," Elsa said, waving her hand. The ice doors swung smoothly shut, crashing together with a sound like a frozen pond cracking. "I'm a monster. Nobody can help me," she added softly to herself as she fled up the stairs, into her sanctuary.

Outside, the snow started falling again.

* * *

"The duke did what?" Link gasped.

"The duke did not do anything," Monger said sternly. "This was a decision by their Congress."

Cockroach held an admonishing finger. "You mean the Storting."

"Whatever," Monger snapped. "And we must respect that. We are not here to interfere in the internal affairs of this country."

"So… we just take the queen—I mean, the ex-queen?" Link asked. "Like, just go up to her and say 'hey, good news, you're coming with us! Sorry, I meant bad news…'? And what about that ice magic of hers? Suppose she doesn't want to go, and makes us into ice cubes? I know I sure had enough of that when I was frozen for all those aeons."

"Indeed," Cockroach said. He rubbed his chin, flicking the small dark wiry hairs with his thumb. "And while I can't say I'm opposed to having a new member, I wonder if Her Majesty will see it that way."

"Which Her Majesty?" Link asked.

"Ah, well, actually both," Cockroach said. "I cannot imagine Princess—Queen Anna would be terribly happy with this news."

"Just remember," Monger said, glaring at the insect-headed scientist, "we are not going to interfere. And by we, I mean you."

"Me?" Cockroach said, his eyes innocently wide. "I assure you, General, I would never even consider the merest possibility of even contemplating beginning to think about…"

"About…?" Monger growled.

"Why, about nothing, nothing at all," Cockroach said, his face the picture of innocence. "Now, if you'll excuse me, General, there are some things I would like to look up in the library here."

Link watched, puzzled, as Cockroach headed out of the anteroom, then turned to look down at the short general. He scratched his scaly scalp for a few moments, then shrugged.

"So… are we really going to do this? Kidnap a queen?"

"We have no choice," Monger said. "We have to stop this winter. Or else thousands will suffer."

* * *

"So, what now?" Bob asked as Susan poised, ready to knock again but not sure if that would do any good. "You wanna just bust the place down? Coz you could totally do that, Susie Q!"

"No, of course not, Bob," she said, frowning at him. "And don't you try anything, either."

The giantess slowly got to her feet and examined the ice structure. It soared high above her, towering more than three times her height to the tip of its jagged spires. The building was made from dark ice, blue and purple in the depths. It was roughly hexagonal, with each apex marked by soaring flying buttresses, supported in their turn by smaller buttresses, creating a complex, interlocking design of angles and lines. However, the precise, neat geometrical patterns were overlaid with sharp spikes of ice, jutting out at all angles, making it forbidding and ugly.

"What now?" Bob asked. "Do we head back?"

Susan glanced down the mountain. "Kristoff is probably waiting, but… I can't just leave the queen like that. I have to try and talk with her, monster to monster. Let her know things are going to be okay. But if she won't even listen to me…." She sighed, and slumped heavily against the ice castle, sliding down to sit by the door under the balcony, out of the snow, as she stared out at the frozen fjord, wondering how she could possibly get the queen to talk to her. And what she could possibly say to the queen.

* * *

A shudder ran through the ice castle, reverberating within the chambers as if a great bell had been struck. Elsa glanced up, her heart beating fast, and saw the chandelier of ice swaying gently, the crystals tinkling against each other. Was the giantess attacking? She crouched down, warily looking around, terrified that a titanic fist would come smashing through the walls she had built around her, but there was no further sound. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding: she was safe, concealed deep in the icy heart of her fortress. Safe, protected by her ice. Elsa let her fingers gently caress the smooth, pure frozen walls. Her ice seemed to call to her, lure her back to stay among its blue embrace for ever. It was somewhere she could be herself, be what she truly was. This was her home, her true home, more even than the royal castle had been. She felt so at peace, so relaxed. So free from fear and worry.

But she could not stay there for ever. There was no food, no water. She would starve if she remained here much longer. But she could not return, or she would be captured. Captured by the giantess outside, or that blue blob, or even worse. She knew what happened to freaks, to dangerous monsters like her. They were locked up, hidden away where no one else could see them.

And where they could not harm anyone….

The realization made her heart skip a beat. Like everything else in her young life, it wasn't about her, about what she wanted. It was about what she had to do to protect her country. And her sister…. She sank to her knees, fresh tears brimming as the reality sunk in. This was why the Americans had come. And they were right—she was a monster, she deserved to be locked away. To save her sister, she would allow herself to take prisoner. If that was what it took…

Elsa stood up, wiping her eyes. She had tried so hard—all her life she had tried to conceal her curse, pretend her power did not exist. And it had cost her dearly—her relationship with her sister most of all. It was time to stop pretending she wasn't a freak—a witch, a monster. It was time to let the old Elsa go, and accept what she really was.

"Good luck, my dear sister," Elsa whispered to the cold blue ice, then took a deep breath. It was time to go, to leave everything she had ever known. Her home, her family—what there was left of both. They would do better without her. She, however, would not do better without them….

But that was the price of her curse. Freezing tears dribbling down her cheeks, she stood erect by the tall doors to her balcony, then made a motion with both arms. The doors swung smoothly inwards with barely a sound, letting a flurry of snow blow in. Elsa paused, then took a deep breath and slowly tiptoed out. She couldn't see the giantess anywhere nearby, and breathed a sigh of relief, as she still wasn't quite sure what she would say. The mountains were covered with snow as far as she could see, and even the fjords, dimly visible in the distance, were icing up. Arendelle was being consumed beneath the ice—the ice that she had created… and could not control. She had destroyed her kingdom, and must pay the price.

Then she heard a low voice speaking English, right below her. Startled, she looked down and realised that the giantess was sitting directly below, underneath the balcony: she could see her clearly through the ice, talking to the strange blue blob.

So that was Ginormica, Elsa thought to herself, taking advantage of her hidden perspective. She… didn't look that scary. Not really. She was big, definitely. How big, Elsa found it hard to tell, looking down on her like this. But she didn't look like a monster. _Then again, nor do I_ , Elsa thought, looking at her hands. She looked completely normal—only she wasn't. They were both monsters. What did that mean? How did Ginormica cope with being… what she was? How did one live as a dangerous monster? How did one control oneself?

Then she gasped. Ginormica had glanced up and seen her. The giantess's huge eyes widened, then to Elsa's surprise, she smiled, revealing neat white teeth.

"Er, hello," Ginormica called up. "Please! Don't run! I promise I won't hurt you!"

But this time, Elsa made no move to flee. She moved to the edge of her balcony, and watched cautiously as the giantess stood up, her head just a few metres below her.

"What…" Elsa began, then cleared her throat and began again. "What do you want, Ginormica?" she asked in as regal a tone as she could manage, trying to ignore the hammering of her heart.

"Just to talk, please," the giantess said, holding her hands up, palms facing Elsa. "Er, Your Majesty. Don't be afraid. My name's Susan. Please, I'm just Susan. Susan Murphy, from Modesto, California. I'm not scary, honest!"

"I'm… I'm not afraid of you," Elsa said, trying to make it sound as if she was telling the truth. It was taking all her willpower not to run inside and slam the door, shutting herself away in her ice castle, but Ginormica's—Susan's—expression was so sincere and open that she found herself willing to trust this strange monster. After all, was she not a monster as well? She remembered interviews she'd seen with the giantess, both after that strange, insane alien had arrived, and after the same monsters had visited France to stop a monster snail. The giantess, Elsa reflected, had always come across as shy and humble, quick to assign credit to others. She was courteous and kind. Perhaps… perhaps it would not be so bad, after all, living with other monsters. Perhaps Susan could be her friend—or even like a sister to her.

Because she was far too dangerous to be with her real sister….

"Susan…" Elsa said, managing a slight smile.

"Your sister's fine, really! Just a sore arm! You don't need to worry! It wasn't your fault, not really!"

"Thank you," Elsa said, smiling more broadly. Despite herself, she was touched by the giantess's concern. Then her expression became more solemn. "I… I think we should talk."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Susan called up, her face lighting up with happiness. "I'm afraid it'll have to be outside," she added with a self-deprecating smile. "I, er, can't fit inside your, uh, ice castle."

"No, I suppose not," Elsa said, unable to keep a slight smirk off her face at the thought of Susan trying to squeeze into her fortress. "We can talk on the way back to Reine, if you like."

"Wait, you're going back?" Susan asked, her eyes widening. "I mean, you're going back, that's great! Er, Your Majesty."

"Yes, Susan. I am going back to Reine. And then…." Elsa paused, and took a deep breath. "And then I am going with you to America. To live in your monster base."

"What!" Susan gasped.

"I cannot stay here," Elsa said softly. "I am a dangerous monster."

Susan shook her head, sending the snow that was slowly accumulating on it flying. She brushed a silver lock out of her eyes and looked up at the Snow Queen, standing proud but scared on a balcony of ice, high up on a castle of ice that she had created through a power unlike anything Susan had ever imagined.

"Maybe you are a monster," Susan said. "But that doesn't make you dangerous. You can control your power—I know you can!"

The queen shook her head. "No—it has grown too powerful. I must accept my fate. Tell General Monger that I formally request he take me to Area 52, and house me with the other monsters. Perhaps then… then my country, my family can finally be safe from me."

"But if you could…" Susan began, but Elsa cut her off with a wave of her hand.

"I couldn't," she said firmly. "I have ruined my country, and nearly killed my sister."

"You didn't, not really!" Susan called. "I saved her! She's fine."

"No," Elsa said, her voice so low Susan could barely hear her. "I don't just mean today. I mean… when we were children. I… hit her with my ice. She nearly died."

Susan clapped her hand to her mouth. "Oh…. God, I'm sorry."

"She lost her memory," Elsa added. "Not of everything—just of my magic. Due to the trauma, we think. You were here to save her today. But the next time I cannot control my power, I might really kill her." Elsa stopped, and swallowed. "No, I have to leave. I thought I could flee up to the mountains, and keep Arendelle safe. But I can't—I have to go as far as I can. I have to leave my home for… for ever," she said, her throat catching.

"Your Majesty, you really don't," Susan said. "I mean, can't we talk about this?"

"Oh, we will have plenty of time to talk, Susan. And please, I'm no longer going to be the queen. Once we're in Reine, I'll abdicate—let Anna be queen instead; not that she ever wanted that," Elsa added with a light laugh. "So I am just plain Elsa, now. That's what you should call me."

"Er, thanks, Uh… Elsa," Susan said. "But please, you shouldn't be so eager to leave your home. You still have a choice—a choice I never had."

"No, I don't really," Elsa said dully, looking at her hand as she flexed her fingers. More snowflakes were added to those that were already falling from the sky. "Not if I want to keep my people safe."

"But if you just learned to control your power?" Susan said, gazing up at the pale queen.

Elsa scowled. "What do you think I've been trying to do the past few days? The past few years? All my life, in fact? Control my power? You think it's that easy? I don't even know why I have it, how it works, anything!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She must not lose her temper. Anger, fear—the darker emotions just made things worse. She slowly counted to ten, then opened her eyes again. "No, Susan. I cannot stay here. One day, perhaps, I could return, but for now, I need to keep my people safe."

"I… I guess that's fair," Susan said, sighing. "I suppose, if it's what you think best."

"Meet me at the main entrance," Elsa commanded, then vanished into her ice castle, the doors slamming shut after her.

"I wish she didn't want to run away," Susan muttered, looking up at the closed doors. "The Monster Facility might be better than it was, but it's still not as good as home." She sighed, shrugging. "Monger said we weren't to interfere, after all…. I just wish I could contact him. Maybe get his advice."

"Why not ask him?" Bob called up.

"Yeah, but how?"

"I don't know. Why not ask Monger?"

Susan glared at him. "Bob, start making sense, please."

"He's calling you, Susie. So ask him."

With a start, Susan realised he was right. She could hear his voice, muffled and distant. For a moment she was completely confused, then gave a short laugh. Of course—her own communicator was in her pack; it hadn't been lost with the other equipment. She quickly opened the backpack and rummaged for the headset.

"General!"

"There you are, Ginormica!" came Monger's voice, sounding tinny in her ear. "I've been calling for the past five minutes!"

"Sorry, sir," she said. "We… had some problems here."

"I know," he told her. "We monitored an avalanche near your location. Is everyone all right?"

"We're all fine, sir," she told him. "Except Anna—the princess, I mean. Her arm's sore. But General, she's been taken back to Reine, even though she tried to refuse!"

"I know."

"Oh, you know? Have you talked to her?"

"No, but the Prime Minister told me. Ginormica, listen carefully. The sort… Storting—their Congress or what-have-you—has declared that the queen—that Elsa is no longer the queen."

"What!" Susan gasped. "How? Why?"

"I don't know the how, precisely," he said. "But the why…"

"I think I know the why, sir," she said quietly, gazing up at the ice castle soaring high above her. "They don't want a monster as queen."

"More or less," Monger admitted. "In fact, they, er, the Prime Minister has asked me to take her back with us. To Area 52."

"What!" Susan gasped. "He wants her to leave, too?"

"Too? Make sense, soldier!"

"Sorry, sir. The queen, Elsa, she wants to leave Arendelle, come and live with us."

"Well, that makes things a lot easier," Monger commented.

"But General! We can't take her away from her home! She doesn't know what she's asking! She wants to run away and hide, far away from anyone—from her family!"

"That is not our call, Ginormica," Monger told her sternly. "If both the PM and the queen—the former queen, that is—feel the best thing for her and for the country is that she leave, and join us, well, I would have thought you would welcome another woman."

"Well, yes, she seems nice," Susan admitted. "And it would be nice to have another girl to talk to, maybe balance out Link and Bob a bit. But that's not the point, sir! We can't just… I mean… wait, what about the princess—I mean the new queen? Shouldn't she be the one to decide this?"

"Queen Anna is currently in hospital, having her arm looked at," Monger said. "And unfortunately we don't have time. The Prime Minister asked that this be done as soon as possible, owing to the… er, unfortunate effects the former queen's presence is having on the country."

Susan bit her lip. "I understand, sir. Elsa said the same." She sighed, shaking her head. "We'll meet you in Reine."

"I'll arrange for a helicopter to pick up Kristoff and the queen—Elsa, that is. You and Bob will have to make your own way down, sorry."

"Yeah, I figured as much," Susan said, making a face. "Over and out."

"Does that mean a new buddy?" Bob asked, his eye open wide with hope as Susan returned the communicator to her backpack.

"Yeah, looks like it," Susan said, sighing while Bob did a little dance by himself. She looked at the ice castle, wondering what life would be like with a queen—and a queen who could create ice and snow at will. "Couldn't be any worse than Doc's mad science experiments," she muttered to herself, and smiled. Life was certainly bound to be more interesting, that was for sure. And maybe in time Elsa herself would start to enjoy it. In time….

* * *

"Wait, what?" Anna gasped, looking at the doctor. "How long do I have to stay in here?"

"Just a few days, Your High—Your Majesty," he said, bowing his head quickly. "Just until we are completely sure that there are no complications from your injury."

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Anna asked, glancing down at her arm, now carefully bandaged and in a sling.

"Nothing to worry about, Your Majesty," the doctor quickly said. "We just want to be quite sure. Your uncle, the Prime Minister, gave us explicit instructions."

Anna made a face. "He's always been overprotective of us," she said. "Especially since our parents died. Sometimes I think he doesn't think we can do anything ourselves."

"Er, if there's nothing more, Your Majesty?" the doctor said, trailing off. "There are many other patients I must see, suffering from frostbite or who slipped on the ice."

"Oh, of course! Don't let me stop you." Anna paused, and gave a small wry smile. " _Your Majesty_. That sounds strange—wrong. Poor Elsa. I wonder how she'll take the news?"

The door slid open, and Ramberg walked in, accompanied by two armed guards. The doctor and nurses quickly bowed and scurried out at a gesture from him.

"Quite well, it seems, Your Majesty," he said with a nod of his head. "I have just received word from General Monger, who has been in contact with the giantess, Ginormica."

"Quite well?" Anna asked, her eyes widening. "I can't believe Elsa would ever agree to leaving Arendelle. Still less to living with a bunch of strange monsters. Nuh-uh, not Elsa."

The duke smiled thinly. "The former queen is most concerned with the welfare of our people. She has sacrificed her position to save the rest of us, a most noble gesture. We believe that once she has left, the snow should melt, and then we can start the long process of rebuilding our country. With you as our queen."

"Me as queen…." Anna gave a long sigh. "I wish it didn't have to be this way. I really do. I never wanted to be queen; I never wanted to rule. That was always Elsa's destiny. She was so good at all her lessons and training; she would have made the perfect queen. Me? I know nothing about ruling."

"Do not worry about a thing, my dear niece," Ramberg assured her. "I am perfectly prepared to continue running things in your name, as I did for your sister before her majority. Your lifestyle will scarcely change, I assure you."

"Yeah, I guess so," Anna said, yawning widely. "Sorry, don't know why I'm so tired."

"At my suggestion, the doctor has given you a sedative to help you sleep, that's all. You really should get some rest, and make sure you get healed before your coronation."

"My… conoration—coronation!" Anna gasped, then swallowed. "Yikes," she whispered. "Yikes… Elsa, I'm sorry. I never wanted this. I never wanted any of this…."

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Ramberg said, "I really should be getting back to the castle. I have another meeting with trade representatives from Weselton Oil."

"Huh? What about?" Anna asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about, my dear," he said, smiling at her. "You just rest and get well soon."

"Yeah, okay, Uncle Mustela," Anna said, waving as he left the room. She sighed again, sinking down into her pillows. Everything was changing so fast. Her sister revealed as a witch, the country plunged into eternal winter, the arrival of monsters, getting caught up in an avalanche, being told she was now queen…. It was too much to cope with right away. She wished she could just jump on a plane and fly to Monaco or Nice or even somewhere like the Maldives, somewhere far away where she could lie on a beach and not have to worry about what was going on at home. Or have to deal with her sister.

But now it would be Elsa who would go, leaving her alone. Properly alone, too. Even though her sister had always seemed to do her level best to avoid her, it would be quite different with her gone for good. _Yikes_ , Anna thought to herself. _For… good…._ Would she ever see Elsa again? Anna swallowed, trying to stop the tears, and failing. All her life, Elsa had been a strong, stable presence. One she always knew would be there for her. It was going to be so hard to be alone. So very hard indeed….

* * *

Susan crouched outside the front door of the ice castle, one hand resting lightly on her backpack, and waited patiently. She knew Elsa must be terrified, both of what she was, and what would happen to her, so was determined to do everything she could to make it easier for her.

"Susan?"

She turned. "Kristoff? Oh, shit, sorry. I forgot you were still waiting. Sorry."

"Do not worry," he said, waving his hand airily. "I could see you were trying to talk to Her Majesty."

"Not 'Her Majesty' any longer," came Elsa's voice as the former queen stepped outside. "Just Elsa, now." She glanced up at the giantess. "Shall we go?" she asked, the merest hint of a tremor in her voice.

"Go? Back to Reine?" Kristoff asked. "Without snowmobiles? It will take some time…."

"Actually, the general's sending another helicopter for you, Kristoff," Susan said. She glanced at Elsa. "He wants you to go with him. Get you back as soon as possible."

Elsa shook her head. "No, it's too dangerous. I shall return with you, Susan," she said, her face set. "I charge you with protecting me until we arrive at… at your home."

Susan shrugged. "Sure, of course, I'd be glad to. Uh, in that case, Bob, why don't you fly down with Kristoff?"

"In a helichopper?" Bob asked, a grin even wider than he was splitting his face. "That's amazing!"

"You've been in them before," Susan told him. "And it's helicopter, not helichopper."

"No, that's not right, Susan," he said sternly, wagging a finger.

Susan raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I'm pretty sure it is, you know."

Bob shook his head. "It's got blades, right?"

Susan nodded. "So?"

"You use blades to chop things, not copt things, right? So it's a chopper!" Bob said triumphantly.

"Yeah, I guess you can call it a chopper," Susan admitted, smiling. "Just not a helichopper, okay?"

Bob nodded. "Gotcha! Say, what is copting anyway, and why does a heli copt?"

"Er, is he always like this?" Elsa asked, taking a few more steps away from the tall blue blob.

"Only when it's most annoying," Susan said with a grin. "At least, that's what it sometimes seems like."

"I see…" Elsa said, glancing over at Bob, but staying well away.

"Don't worry about him," Susan said. "He's actually pretty funny a lot of the time. Some of the time. You'll… er, I think you'll enjoy living with him. With us. I mean, I know I would. Enjoy living with you, that is," she trailed off nervously, looking at the former queen through the gently falling snow.

"I don't have much choice, do I?" Elsa asked, glancing back at the ice fortress. "Not if I want to save Arendelle… from what I am."

"It won't be forever," Susan said. "We'll try and help you—Doc will work on a cure for this… this power you have."

"This curse, you mean," Elsa said bitterly.

"Wow, a real curse?" Bob asked. "Were you cursed by a witch or something?"

Elsa slowly shook her head. "No. I don't know how this happened." She held up her hands and gazed at them. "All I know is that I am not the first."

"Not the first Elsa?" Bob asked, looking surprised.

Elsa sighed. "Not the first Snow Queen."

* * *

"She's not the first?" Link asked.

"No, definitely not," Cockroach told him. He patted the volumes that stood on the table in one of the castle outbuildings in which he, Link and Monger had been assigned quarters. "I've found numerous records, dating back to the Viking Age a thousand years ago, that reference the Snødronningen. Some are just retellings of the legend, but some are, I am sure, references to real women."

"So do they say how this happened?"

Cockroach shook his head. "Unfortunately not. Details are scant. The most detailed records are from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but they are, sadly, concerned with other matters."

"Why sadly?" Link asked. "Surely detailed records are good, no?"

"Not when they are confessions obtained through torture, Link," Cockroach. He opened one volume, and pointed to a section written in Latin. "This contains the records of the imprisonment, torture and trial of one accused Snow Queen."

"Huh? Why was she tried?"

"For being a witch, my friend," Cockroach said, and sighed. "This was not a good time to be accused of witchcraft—the _Hammer of Witches_ saw to that."

"Hammer of Witches? Make sense, dude," Link growled.

"The _Malleus Maleficarum_ ," Cockroach explained. "Perhaps the most evil book ever written. The book that instigated the horror of witch-hunting, when thousands of innocents were burned at the stake."

Link shuddered. "So these records…?"

"…are the records of the trial of one Snow Queen, as she was tortured. She… went into great detail about her powers, perhaps in an effort to convince her persecutors that she was not a worshipper of Satan. Her testimony, though it failed to save her, may help me save Elsa."

"What!" Link thundered, rising to his full seven-and-a-half feet and flexing his huge muscles. "If anyone tries to burn her, they're going to have to get through me!"

"Not from burning, don't worry," Cockroach said quickly. "Thankfully we do not live in such unenlightened times any more. I just mean from being deposed as the rightful queen."

"Oh. Yeah, good point," Link said, looking embarrassed. "So do these records say how this… curse, whatever, started?"

"Not directly—but the earliest records I've been able to dig up refer to an ancient queen of Arendelle, Queen Gunnhild Bloodaxe, from the tenth century, feared as a sorceress. She was said to have the power to freeze men's hearts, turn them into pitiless automatons who had no choice but to obey her will, and to command the very snow and ice itself. One saga even refers to her great castle of ice."

"Like the one Elsa made!" Link gasped. "The one Monger showed us in the satellite images!"

"Precisely," Cockroach said. "At any rate, it seems clear that Elsa is not the first such…being. The problem is, it's one thing to know the history of something, but quite another to work out the scientific reasons behind it. The biggest issue I have to solve is where she gets the energy from."

"Where she gets the snow from, you mean?"

"Not precisely, no. Snow can be generated quite easily—ski fields do it regularly. But to generate the amount of snow we're currently surrounded by would take an incredible amount of power: the equivalent of more than a hundred Hiroshima atom bombs. Where does this power come from? Where? It doesn't make sense… it just doesn't…."Cockroach walked to the window and stared out at the gloomy grey sky, the steadily-falling snow, quiet and deadly. "It doesn't make sense," he repeated to himself. "No sense at all…."

* * *

"Bye Susie Q! See you back at Area fifty-something!" Bob shouted over the noise of the blades.

"Fifty-two, for the fifty-second time!" Susan called back. "And we're not going there immediately. Monger wants to meet us back at Reine. And don't try and climb outside the chopper this time!"

"Arms and goo inside the craft at all times!" Bob said, saluting. "Right, let's go!"

"See you back at Reine, Kristoff," Susan called. "We should be there tomorrow morning."

"We'll be waiting," he shouted back as the rotors increased their speed.

The chopper lifted off through the snow and was soon lost in the low grey clouds that covered the land. Susan sighed, then glanced down at the pale girl standing by the ice castle.

"Er, Your—I mean, Elsa, we don't have any snow mobiles. Sure I can't carry you?"

Elsa shook her head. "It's best that I don't get too close," she said. "To anyone. I'll walk."

"Um, there's quite a lot of snow," Susan said. "And some of it's quite deep—up to my thighs in parts. You might find it hard going."

Elsa glanced up and gave Susan a quick smile. "I'll be fine," she said. "I don't seem to sink into snow."

"No, I guess not," Susan said, watching as Elsa walked down the steps and then casually along the top of the snow, not even leaving footprints. How was that even possible? But then how was anything the queen—the former queen could do actually possible? Perhaps Doc knew how it worked, she told herself. He was a genius, after all—surely if anyone could solve the mystery of the Snow Queen, it would be him.

In the meantime, all she had to was get Elsa to Reine safely, so she could return to Area 52 with them. Susan still wasn't happy about the idea, however—but it seemed to be the only way to prevent an even worse disaster. The winter the Snow Queen had unwittingly wrought would destroy the entire kingdom… unless the cause was removed, and removed far away.

That, it seemed, was the fate of monsters—whatever they might look like, whatever their powers, they were a threat to those around them. Even if all they wanted was to be treated as human….

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES:**

Sorry for the long delay. This was a very hard chapter to get my head around for some reason. I needed to do a lot of thinking about where the story was going, in detail, and make sure that this led there and I wouldn't end up writing myself into a corner. Don't worry—I know where the story is going and how it will get there, and the parts each character will play in getting it there.

Now for some quick Knowtes….

The _Malleus Maleficarum_ , Latin for "Hammer of Witches," is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and (probably) Jacob Sprenger. It was written to basically convince religious juries that witches were real, were dangerous, and needed to be hunted down and discovered using the techniques (tortures) it contains. For several centuries it was used as the basis for the witch trials of Europe, up to the 17th century. A very evil book indeed, used by evil men for evil deeds.

Queen Gunnhild Bloodaxe is a reference to the (probably possibly) real Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, who was married to King Eric Bloodaxe (cool name). She was known for her "power and cruelty, admired for her beauty and generosity, and feared for her magic, cunning, sexual insatiability, and her goading." So she seems as good a person as any to make into the mythical First Snow Queen.

Elsa not leaving footprints is a reference to the song (THE song; you know the one I mean) about not being able to see any footprints—including hers. It's also influenced by Legolas in LOTR walking across the top of the snow. Elsa is not, however, an elf….

 **(9 July 2016) NOTICE** : This long delay is very unlike me. Rest assured, it is not a dead fic. I am in fact working on the next chapter. In fact I am working on as I add this notice. Things have just been busy, and distracting me from writing. But they are calming down, I can start focusing again, and I hope to have the next chapter up by about the end of the end of the month (it's 7.500 words long already, but needs a lot of work to pare it down and shape it).


	7. In the Cold Thin Air

**7\. In the Cold Thin Air**

They had been walking for several hours now, the snowfall steady but not strong. Susan would occasionally glance down at the pale woman beside her, walking slowly across the snow, barely caressing it with her feet. The same snow that she was up to her knees in. Elsa didn't even leave footprints. The queen's powers seemed like magic – but magic couldn't exist, surely? But what sort of science could account for all this? Could it actually be magic? Cockroach often said that any sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic, but how could Arendelle have this technology? Or wait—was the queen an alien? Could that explain it? She was an alien being who…. No, no. Susan shook her head. That was a silly idea. She glanced back at Elsa, and gave her a small, encouraging smile. It was ignored, as all her other encouraging smiles or words had been.

Susan gave a quick sigh, and took a deep breath of the cold air. It was perfectly understandable that the former queen was not in the chattiest of moods, considering what had happened, both to her and her country. She thought back to her first days as a monster, and how terrified she had been. How could she blame Elsa for being unhappy?

Then she heard a low howl, far off. She froze, glancing down at Elsa, who didn't seem to have noticed. Then there was an answering howl. Was it closer, or just louder? Susan couldn't tell, and shivered.

"Why have you stopped?"

Susan looked down, surprised. "I heard something. Wolves, maybe."

"I can't hear anything. Are you sure?"

Susan nodded, and pointed to the side of her head. "I have very good hearing. Large ears," she said, and gave Elsa a goofy grin. But the younger woman didn't react. In fact her expression did not change at all. "Aren't you worried?" Susan added, hoping Elsa was not in too much of a funk to care about wolves.

"No. They almost never attack humans unless provoked," Elsa said calmly.

"Really?"

"It's well documented. I've read several articles on the subject."

"Oh, okay," Susan said, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"There have been seven reports of wolf attacks in Arendelle in the past thirty years. In these, three people were taken to hospital. No fatalities."

"Uh, good," Susan said, wondering if that was the sort of thing queens needed to know, or if Elsa was just into wolves for some reason.

"So why have you stopped?" Elsa asked, breaking into Susan's musings. "Which way now?"

"Uh…" Susan muttered, looking around. "Er, this way… I think. Wait… No, that way. No, no, I think it was…."

"Don't you remember the route you took up?"

"I… well, I thought I did," Susan admitted. "I was following our snowmobile tracks back down, but then I lost them in the new snow that's been falling, and…."

"…and so now we're lost as well," Elsa said in a flat voice. "On top of everything else."

"Er, don't you know the way to Reine?" Susan asked, trying to keep her voice soft. She didn't want to come across as accusatory or bickering. It was important that Elsa see her as a friend, or at least a kindred spirit.

"Me? Do you really think I'm a mountain girl?" Elsa retorted. "Me, who never left the castle if I could help it? I haven't the faintest idea!"

"I thought… maybe you came here for a reason—maybe you knew North Peak," Susan said quietly.

There was a long pause. "No," Elsa said eventually. She sighed. "I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to flee, to get as far away from everyone else as possible."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, I suppose I can understand. Now what? I guess we're stuck for the moment."

"As I simply kept climbing up when I fled the ball, I suggest we just keep going down. We'll reach the coast eventually."

"Which coast, though?"

"Doesn't matter. Arendelle is not a large country, especially down here at the tip of the Lofoten peninsula. We'll find a road."

"I guess." Susan glanced down at her royal companion. "I can't see any sign of civilisation, myself."

"There's a village at the end of that fjord, half-hidden under the snow," Elsa said, pointing. She sighed again. "It looks so… small from up here. My whole kingdom is, really. I never really thought of it like that, but it's funny how some distance makes everything seem small."

"Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know." Susan looked down at the small princess beside her, and sighed. "Sometimes… sometimes I think I live in a world of dollhouses. Everything's too small. I can't fit into anyone's home, and I can't… fit into anyone's life," she added in a whisper.

Elsa didn't appear to have heard. Instead, she looked out at the snow-covered fjord, then nodded to herself.

"Not that way, I think. Not towards that village. It's too steep. Heading east, then south is the best way. Longer, but safer. Come on," she ordered.

"Er, how long will that take?" Susan asked. "Should we camp somewhere for the night? It must be getting late. Not that I can really tell," she added, looking over at the sun, low on the horizon.

"Very well. Down by those trees, then, out of the way," Elsa suggested, pointing to a distant grove of snow-covered pines in a small dell. She sighed. "Pity I can't sleep forever. At least that way there would be no more snow falling."

"Oh, don't say that, please," Susan said, biting her lip as the two of them headed down the mountainside. "I'm sure things will get better soon."

"As soon as I leave Arendelle for ever, you mean," Elsa said bitterly.

Susan glanced around, and gave Elsa what she hoped was a reassuring a smile. "It's not such a bad place, you know," she said. "Our home, that is."

"If we ever get there." Elsa snorted, a short, cynical barking laugh. "Well, so much for capturing a new monster. That plan went brilliantly. Like everything else in my life." She paused, then sighed. "Everything in my life…."

"Er, well, we weren't coming to capture…" Susan started to say, but then she heard a new sound. She wasn't sure what it was for a moment, and then she realised: the young princess was sobbing. Dropping her pack on the snow, she quickly stooped down to get her head as close to the weeping woman as she could. "Look, it's going to be okay, you'll see," she said softly. "It's not for ever. Just until you learn to control your power."

There was no response, and Susan lowered herself still further, bending down so her face was just a dozen feet from Elsa. She wished she could hug her, hold her, let her feel safe and secure. But not only was she uncertain of the etiquette, she knew she could never hug another person again. All she could do was wait, her hand out if the other girl wanted it.

But Elsa stopped sobbing quickly, sighing as she wiped her eyes and shook her head. "My apologies. I didn't mean to lose control quite that badly."

"No, it's fine," Susan assured her. "When I was first taken, ripped from my family and friends, thrown into an underground prison, told I could never leave again… it was worse than anything that had ever happened to me."

"Not to me," Elsa said under her breath, so low Susan could barely hear it. "Not to me…" she repeated sadly, looking at her bare hands.

"I wish it didn't have to come to this," Susan said. "But then none of us monsters really had a choice. Not once we became… what we are. I certainly didn't."

"Oh, I'm used to not having choices," Elsa said dully. "After all, I was the Crown Princess, then the Queen. My entire life was determined for me the moment I was born. Every moment of every day I was in training to eventually rule my people, to make decisions that would bring my country prosperity. Or… disaster…."

There was a short silence, Susan feeling like she should say something, but was quite unable to think of anything appropriate. What could she possibly say? Then the former queen started speaking again.

"I suppose I always knew this would happen. In my dreams—or in my nightmares. Sometimes I would dream of the entire land being covered in snow and ice. When I was younger, it was a fun dream, because snow was such fun. I couldn't imagine it ever causing anyone any harm. Until it did…. Until I nearly killed my sister."

"Wait, what?" Susan gasped.

"It was a long time ago," Elsa said, staring off into the distance. "We were playing with my snow. The details don't matter. Silly childish games. Then I managed to aim a blast straight at her head."

"My God!" Susan exclaimed. "Was she… was she badly hurt?"

There was a long pause, then Elsa nodded. "She was in a coma for days. And when she finally recovered, I knew I could never have fun with my power again. I could never play with my sister again. That was when… when I first knew I was a monster. I was barely ten years old…."

Susan bit her lip, wondering how to respond.

"So I shut myself away," Elsa went on. "Anna didn't remember anything of my power, my… magic. The trauma had wiped it from her mind. And so I couldn't tell her, either. Instead, I did the only thing I could—I shut myself away from her, from the world, hiding myself where no one could see what I was. I would have stayed there. And then my parents… my parents died. They left me… alone…."

"I'm so sorry," Susan said.

"Are your parents alive?" Elsa asked quickly, looking up at the giantess with hard, dry eyes, in the corners of which small tears glistened like ice.

Susan nodded. "My parents, and my grandparents. I guess I'm lucky."

"No. No, you're normal," Elsa said. "Your parents don't have to travel to other countries for weddings, just because of what they are. Your parents don't have to fly in the middle of winter, in a plane that was not properly de-iced. Ice!" she spat. "Even when I don't cause it, it still ruins my life. I am still cursed."

"I'm sure it's not a curse," Susan said. "I mean, witches don't exist."

"Really? And what would you call me?" Elsa asked, holding up a hand. She made a swooping gesture, and a bright glow sparkled briefly as needle-tipped shards of ice shot out from the Snow Queen's hand, ripping through a young pine tree and turning it to kindling.

Susan started. "I mean, maybe that's not really witchcraft," she said nervously. "I'm sure Doc's come up with a theory about… how you can do that. There's bound to be a scientific explanation for it."

"Don't you think I've already looked?" Elsa asked. "I've spent years—years!—trying to work out how I can do this. It's impossible! What other answer could there be?"

"Well, I mean, I don't know," Susan admitted. "But that doesn't mean we have to jump straight to believing in witches and curses. Just because we don't know the answer doesn't mean there isn't one."

There was a short silence as Elsa stopped and gazed up at Susan. Then she smiled, and nodded. "Of course, you're right. That's a foolish fallacy to fall into. Just as Christians are foolish to fill up the gaps in scientific knowledge with 'God did it,' I should not be so hasty to claim I am the victim of a supernatural curse. I must say, you're more intelligent than I gave you credit for."

Susan raised an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks. Nice to know I'm not just a dumb giant."

Elsa blushed. "Ah, yes, that was not tactful. My apologies. I did not mean to offend."

"No, it's okay." Susan stopped, and gazed out over the snow-covered landscape. "It's just that… well, people often just see me as a great lumbering giant, and that's all. I mean, how many intelligent, articulate giants are there in stories? We're always just great big brutish things. Power, violence… Hulk mad! Hulk smash! That's how people see me, and I'm sick of it!" Susan finished in a shout that shook the snow off the nearby trees, then went pink as she saw Elsa cower, her face even paler than usual. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just a little annoyed. I shouldn't have shouted. I forgot for a moment how… I looked."

Then Susan saw a small smile form at the corners of the former queen's mouth.

"You know, you might be right," Elsa said. "Just the sight of you can be scary. Even if you have no intention of hurting others, they see you, and are afraid. Like… like I was. It must be hard, the whole world being afraid of you hurting them."

"It is, sometimes," Susan said, sighing. "But I never would."

"Oh, of course not," Elsa said. "But there's always that fear. The fear that has ruled my own life. The fear of your power, the harm it can cause. And your own fear of that fear."

"Yeah, I guess," Susan said, not really sure how to respond.

"I was told, years ago, that fear would be my worst enemy," Elsa admitted. "At the time, I thought it was fear of me by other people. But I realised that my own fears have not helped."

"Surely, if you know it's your own fears, you could…" Susan started to suggest, then trailed off as she saw Elsa shake her head.

"Your own fears can be an even more effective prison than iron bars," the Snow Queen pointed out. "I wasn't afraid of what others might do to me—this isn't the sixteenth century; I would never be burned as a witch. I was afraid of what I would do to others. To my family…."

Susan nodded. "I know. I have to be so careful around other people—if I don't watch where I walk, I could step on someone and kill them. Or I could send them flying by just waving my arm."

"Have you?"

"Not yet," Susan told her with a light laugh. "But I've come close a few times. Our main room at the Monster Force base is designed so that the others have sort of elevated platforms for their main living areas, so they won't be walking around underfoot." She gave a snort. "Talking of which, there's a big warning picture of a huge foot right by the entrance, which I kinda find insulting. I only stepped on a jeep once, after all."

"You stepped on a jeep?" Elsa gasped. "What happened?"

"The roof caved in and the wheels sheered off," Susan told her. "Then I lost my balance and fell over, and landed on my butt."

Elsa gave a short laugh, then went pink. "Sorry. I'm sure it wasn't funny."

"Link thought so—he went on about it for days."

"Link… I remember the news reports. The Missing Link, they called him? He's a sort of primate-piscean hybrid, right? Frozen in ice for millennia?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Susan said.

"What's he like? What are the other mon… other ones like? I mean, their personalities."

"Well, Link's... well, he's a jock, really. That's the best way to put it. Macho, not really the quiet introspective type. That's Doc. Doctor Cockroach – he's a genius, which we know as he keeps telling us. And quite mad."

"He didn't seem mad in the interview I saw," Elsa noted.

"No, well, that's because he wasn't sciencing. When he does, even if it's just theory, he comes up with the craziest things ever. But don't worry—not _that_ many of them blow up."

Elsa gave a light laugh. "And what about the blob?"

"Bob? Oh, he's the joker," Susan said, smiling. "Just the other day, he…." She trailed off as another low howl pierced the whiteness around them. "Are you, like, _totally_ sure wolves don't usually attack humans?" she asked, looking around warily.

"Yes," Elsa said. "Mostly," she added after another howl, louder and closer, sounded. "Of course, they may be finding it hard to get food in this sudden snow.…"

"That was even closer," Susan said quickly after yet another howl. "I think… just to be safe…."

Susan backed up to a large pine tree, and reached out with one hand to grip its trunk while she continued to scan the mountainside in the direction the last howl had come from.

"Can… can you see anything from way up there?" Elsa called, her heart-rate increasing despite herself. Everything she had read told her that wolf attacks were very rare, and wolves only attacked humans if they were desperate, or if the humans were already badly injured. There was yet another howl, and she shivered.

Then she heard a new noise: a slow groaning, creaking sound. Elsa's eyes opened wide as, with tremendous shrieks of tortured wood and explosions of snapping roots, the huge giantess slowly uprooted the tall pine with a single hand, then stood there, holding it like a club as she scanned the area.

"Herrengud…" Elsa breathed, almost unable to comprehend what she had just witnessed. The giantess had just… she had just torn out a sturdy tree by the roots like it was a weed in the garden. Such power was almost unbelievable. It _was_ unbelievable—yet she had just seen it happen. Such effortless strength…. It was terrifying, and Elsa felt her skin crawl. She was intending to live with such a creature? With other monsters like that—like Susan? What was she thinking?

Then it happened. Three wolves lunged out of the forest so fast it was if they had appeared by magic. Susan shouted something and jumped back, swinging her tree. Her initial blow missed the wolves, who were ignoring her and heading straight for the Snow Queen.

Elsa gasped and tried to run, but she knew she had no hope. Then she heard a thud and a yelp, cut short, and saw two wolves sailing high overhead, their bodies limp, and Susan raising her tree club for another blow. But then the third wolf darted to the side, lunging at her, and Elsa shrieked, her mind suddenly blank, the fear driving all else out. Unable to run, Susan too far away to reach her in time, she knew she was doomed. The terrified young woman shut her eyes, holding out her hands in a futile effort to ward off the savage beast that was about to devour her. It roared, and leapt.

Then there was silence. Or almost silence—she could hear the familiar sound of ice, growing, creaking.

Elsa slowly opened her eyes. The last wolf was completely impaled through its body, from breast to back, by a long shard of ice that rose from the ground just in front of her. She watched, still terrified, as the creature slowly slipped down the ice spike, staining it crimson with its blood.

"Are you all right?" Susan shouted, dashing the few paces to Elsa's side. "Wow," she added, looking down at the impaled wolf. "I guess you are. That was… amazing."

"That was not amazing," Elsa snapped. "That is why I am so dangerous!"

"I don't understand. I mean, it was attacking you."

"But I didn't mean to kill it. I didn't know what I was doing. It just happened," Elsa told her, almost shouting. "I told you, I can't control my power! What if this happens to someone I love? A moment of distraction, of anger—and then… this happens to my sister?" she cried, stabbing her hand towards the impaled wolf carcass. A burst of ice shot from her fingers and smashed into the wolf, encasing it in ugly, misshapen spikes of ice. Elsa shrieked, and hugged her hands to her breasts. "No, no, no…" she muttered.

"Elsa, I do understand, I really do," Susan said, carefully laying the uprooted tree over the dead wolf, hiding it from view. The two of them started heading down the mountain again. "What do you think happens if I get angry? If I, even for a minute, forget my size, my strength?" She held out her five-foot long hands. "I can crush a car with these. I could crush a skull like popping a grape. And that terrifies me—every time I have go out among normal people, I'm terrified."

Elsa looked down at her own hands, then over at Susan's huge ones. Could the giantess really crush a car? After what she had seen, it seemed only too possible. "How… how do you cope? How do you live among others, knowing that a single miss-step could kill someone?"

Susan's face turned grim. "That's why I live where I do, in Area 52. It's safe there—it's designed for people—for monsters—like me. Us. I could never live a normal life." Then she smiled down at the former queen. "But I wouldn't want to. I can do so much more as Ginormica than I ever could as just plain old Susan Jane Murphy."

"Like save the world," Elsa commented. "However, I never had a normal life. From the day I was born, I was groomed to be queen. Even if I couldn't do this—" Elsa gestured to the snow-covered landscape around them "—I would still never have had a normal life. Nothing in my life has ever been normal. I could never escape from what I am…."

"I wonder if that's easier, or harder," Susan said after a short pause. "To never have what you wanted, or to have it all ripped away from you."

"Ripped away is harder, definitely," Elsa said firmly. "It's not better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, believe me."

"Who have you—oh, of course, I'm so sorry," Susan said. "Your parents. Sorry, I thought you were talking about a boyfriend."

"I remember what happened to yours. I don't suppose that was hard," Elsa said, unable to keep a slight smirk off her face. Then she sighed. "But no. I wasn't thinking of Mamma and Pappa. At least, not just them."

"Ah. Anna." Susan stopped and bent down, lowering her face so that she no longer towered over the other woman. "You'll be with her again. Honestly, things will get better. You'll learn to master your powers. You won't have to be the Snow Queen for ever. Snow doesn't last for ever, after all. It's not snowing now, see?"

Elsa smiled without warmth. "That's because I am not feeling anything."

"Huh?"

"It seems to reflect my emotional state. When I'm scared, it snows the hardest. Fear, anger, those negative emotions seem to make it worse. But sometimes it comes out when I laugh, and… when I cry, when I'm really upset, it just… stops. It stops dead—hanging in the air."

Susan frowned. "So it's about your emotions?"

Elsa nodded. "Father told me to try and control them, conceal them. It was safest if I didn't let myself feel any, really. For years I trained myself, tried to purge emotion. In the hope that it would keep my family, my sister safe."

"Did it?"

"Somewhat." Elsa briefly fiddled with the thick braid that hung down over one shoulder. "I mean, there weren't too many accidents, at least not once I was in my teens. But… when Mother and Father… when we lost them, I… lost control. I didn't dare leave my room—Anna had to do everything herself. Including go to their funeral alone." Elsa suddenly let out a choking sob, and the air filled with snow again. "She had to do that all alone because… because I wasn't strong enough to be there with her. I was never strong enough to be with her. And now… I know I never can."

"No, that's not true," Susan said. "There must be a solution. And I know that if anyone can figure it out, it's Doc. He's a genius. He won't stop until he knows the answer."

"You're right," Elsa said, sighing. "Of course there's a solution. There's a solution to every problem, as you noted earlier. And we will find this one."

"That's the spirit!" Susan said, smiling broadly. "And then you can come back and live with your sister again."

"Maybe…" Elsa said slowly. "If she'll have me…."

"Of course she'll have you! Why wouldn't she?"

"We're not exactly close, you understand," Elsa said. "I actively avoided her for most of my life. To keep her safe, of course. But… she didn't understand why I had to reject her."

"She will now, I'm sure," Susan said. "She'll understand it was because you loved her."

"I doubt it, based on the last time we spoke," Elsa said dryly. "And the time before that. And before that…."

"But she's your sister—she loves you," Susan said. "She must. I mean, I know I would. Love my sister, that is. If I had one."

Elsa looked up at the giantess, seeing her huge face just a few metres away. It was like looking at someone through a magnifying glass—she could see every detail, every tiny hair, every pore, every birthmark, every small wrinkle in Susan's lightly tanned skin. The giantess was not wearing any makeup, and for a brief moment, Elsa found herself wondering if Susan used a paint roller to apply lipstick. Then she looked up further into Susan's huge blue eyes, a few shades darker than hers. "Did you ever want a sister?"

Susan nodded. "Sure. But I'm an only child. Which is strange for Irish Catholics, I guess," she added after a slight pause, smiling. "But anyway, I never got to have a sister. I always thought it would be like having a best friend who never had to go home at the end of the day. Who you could play with whenever you liked."

"That was Anna and me," Elsa said softly. "At least, when we were younger. We had such fun together. She was always following me around, ever since she could walk, and she loved it when I would make snow and ice for her. I remember she was about two years old, maybe three, and she would always call out 'Do the magic! Do the magic!'."

"Your sister said your mother called you Elsanna," Susan said with a light laugh.

Elsa smiled, the memories comforting. "I haven't heard that in years. Yes, we were inseparable. And then… I hurt her, and Mother and Father said I wasn't to play with her again. That was so hard. So very, very hard…."

Elsa felt a huge warm hand wrap around her, a gentle pressure on her shoulders and back. She could see the tips of Susan's titanic fingers, each thicker and longer than her legs, curl around her body.

"She still loves you, you know," the giantess whispered. "She told me. On the way up to find you. She was desperate to find you, to bring you back home."

"Perhaps she does, in her own way," Elsa admitted. "Still, I know she doesn't love me as much as I love her. Oh, I don't blame her, not at all—how could she? Suddenly her big sister, her best friend, just won't have anything to do with her any more? Of course she was angry. Of course she ran away from me, sought out new friends, out among the royalty and elite of Europe. Always out there, partying… trying to replace me."

"She never could, I'm sure," Susan said. She paused, biting her lip. "Er, might I ask something a bit… well, personal?"

"You can always ask," Elsa said. "I might not always answer, however," she added with a slight smirk.

"Did you… resent her partying? I mean, resent her going out and having fun, while you were stuck at home studying all the time?"

There was a long silence, and Susan was about to stammer an apology when Elsa nodded.

"I was so jealous," she whispered. "But I wasn't jealous of her getting to go out to nightclubs and partying. Not that at all. I was so jealous of her friends—the friends she found to replace me. The more she partied with them, the less she even tried to talk to me. It made me so… angry, sometimes. But I knew it wasn't her fault. It was my fault, all my fault. Because of what I am, this curse." Elsa stopped and took a deep breath. "It's so hard to be left alone, sometimes. Abandoned, like a dried up old flower."

Susan sighed deeply. "Yeah, I guess I kind of know what you mean. When I was dumped by Derek, I remember wandering along some lonely country road, thinking I would be alone for the rest of my life, isolated by what I am." She stopped, and wiped away a tear.

"You don't miss him, do you?" Elsa asked.

Susan shook her head. "No, not him. Good riddance I say. But… still… after he dumped me, it was so painful. I knew it was because of… of what I am. I wanted him to support me, be there for me, but… he just turned away, leaving me outside, alone. He just turned away, and slammed the door in my face…."

Elsa swallowed, remembering the many times she had done precisely that to Anna.

"I… always told myself it was to protect her," she whispered. "But I remember, when we were younger, and I kept telling her to go away… she would sometimes sit outside my door, and I could hear her crying. She didn't understand. Oh, Anna, I wish there could have been a better way. I wish we could have loved each other as sisters should."

"You know, we're not so different, you and I," Susan said. "Both isolated from love by what we are."

"Maybe, I suppose." Elsa gazed up at the fifty foot woman, thinking how isolating it must be for Susan for everything. How did the giantess cope?

"But you know what?" Susan asked, smiling. "Maybe we can't be intimate with others, physically, but that doesn't mean we can't love. I mean, I still love my parents, but I can't hug them or kiss them."

"And I still love my sister," Elsa added. "I just wish I could let her know how much—how important keeping her safe has been for me. I'd do anything to keep her safe… even become a prisoner in an alien land."

"Well, it's not all that alien, really—it's my home," Susan joked as she swung her backpack off and pulled out her folded tent. "Although, if you're talking about Area 52, I guess some of the scenery is. It's not like this, all mountains and forests and fjords. We got desert scenery. Strange rock formations, that sort of thing. Not too many trees. But there's a nice pond where Link likes to swim. I join him, sometimes. Cockroach won't—says roaches aren't… what was the word he used? Hydro-philip."

"Hydrophilic," Elsa said. "From the Greek, _philos_ , or love. And _hydro_ , or water. Also Greek."

"You… know Greek?" Susan asked in surprise as she set up her tent beside two tall pines.

"Oh yes. Greek, Latin, English, German, French, some Chinese, and of course Norwegian," Elsa said. "Plus a bit of Old Norse for reading Viking runes."

"Wow…." Susan breathed. "That's so cool. I only know English."

"Well, we learn foreign languages a lot in Europe," Elsa noted. Then she gave a short humourless laugh. "Also, I had a lot of time on my hands. I never went out—I never left my room if I could help it. Too many people. Too many chances for an accident…."

"Oh." Susan bit her lip, wondering what to say.

"So yes, I studied a lot," Elsa said after a short silence. "That was almost all I did."

"Well, that's okay then, 'coz Doc loves to study," Susan said happily. "He's got a huge library, books on all sorts of things."

"Really?" Elsa asked, showing interest for the first time. "What sorts of things?"

"Well, mostly science, but lots of literature, history, that sort of thing."

"I wouldn't mind having a perusal," Elsa admitted. Then her face fell. "What about my own books? Can I take them with me?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can take anything you like. I mean, MF-1 is a big plane, and even with me on board there's plenty of room."

"MF-1?"

"That's our Monster Force plane. It's a converted Galaxy, big enough for me to fit. Just—I have to lie down or sit sort of hunched over."

"That can't be comfortable," Elsa said, looking up at the giantess, who soared above her even seated. "I suppose many things are uncomfortable for you," she added.

Susan sighed. "Yeah, there's a few sacrifices that come with being… what I am." She smiled down at the former queen. "But I think it's all worth it. Instead of being a nobody, I'm a hero who saved the world."

"Whereas I'm going from queen of my own kingdom to a monster living in a forgotten dungeon," Elsa sighed. "I shall live my life out as a forgotten nobody, hidden away where no one else can see. Because I have no choice…Why fight it any more? What has fighting what I am ever got me? A life without love….." She flexed her fingers, causing a glowing ball of snowflakes to form. Then she raised both her arms, then swept them around. A great cascade of ice and snow formed, a crystal arch, shimmering and scintillating as each flake caught the low sun, splitting the light into a myriad rainbows. "Because I am the Snow Queen—the Snødronningen!"

Susan gasped. "Wow, that's so amazing!"

Elsa looked up at the giantess, an unreadable smile on her face. "Want to see more?"

"Oh, yes! Please!"

"Watch this, then!" Elsa called, sweeping both hands around and conjuring up swirls of glowing snow which rose into the air, forming an intricate pattern of coloured light, then coalesced into a ball before bursting outwards in a soundless explosion.

Susan could barely believe her eyes. "Wow! That was amazing! You're amazing!"

"You think so?" Elsa asked, a playful smirk on her face as she spun her finger around, creating another ball of snow, followed by another, and another, spinning around in the air.

"Of course! I mean, look at that!"

"What? At this?" Elsa asked, her expression one of studied innocence. "Here, take a closer look!" she added, and Susan suddenly found her face full of snow.

"What the—!" she gasped.

Elsa laughed out loud. "Too slow!"

"Slow? I don't understand…" Susan stammered, wiping her face.

"Come on, you never had snowball fights as a child?"

"Well, we don't get much snow in Modesto…" Susan said, wondering what on earth had got into the prim and proper former queen.

"Well, we get plenty here in Arendelle," Elsa said. "Come on! Let's have some fun! No sense in concealing what I am now—not when the entire world knows."

"But… aren't you worried about… your power? Losing control?"

"Control?" Elsa said with a bitter laugh. "Control? All my life I have had to have control, to be the good girl—the perfect princess, groomed to be queen, and to never, ever let my true feeling show. Well, that's all over now, isn't it? Anna's to be queen, and I'm to be carried off to some underground prison, where I can't hurt anyone. All my life, everything I tried to be, has been shown to be a complete façade, crumbling into dust! This is who I am, Susan! This is the real me!" Elsa shouted, then stamped her foot on the snow.

To Susan's astonishment, a sheet of ice quickly formed, and then, as Elsa aimed her hands, bright streamers of ice and snow sprayed out, swooping and circling in ornate patterns, spiralling and arcing through the air.

"Wow, that's… that's amazing!" Susan gasped. "It's unbelievable! Wonderful! You're amazing!"

Elsa could feel her heart racing with excitement. It felt so free, so liberating to just stop worrying. What point was there in concealing her power now? What point was there in trying to be the good girl? What had that got her? An orphan, estranged from her sister, and forced to leave her home to prevent her country from being destroyed. How much further could she fall? There was nothing left for her, no hope of having a normal life any more. No hope of her dreams ever coming true. No hope of love. Her life was over, so there was nothing to worry about any more. She was finally free….

* * *

"Dammit, Uncle Mustela, why can't I leave this place?" Anna asked, glaring at the duke.

"I'm sorry, An—Your Majesty," he said, smiling at her. "The doctor has said that your injury was much worse than we initially expected! Please, it will only be a few days, a week at the most!"

"A week!" Anna snarled, feeling her arm, which was wrapped in bandages and held in a sling. "A week stuck in here while God knows what happens outside! To my sister! To Arendelle!"

"The country will be safe," the duke said. "At least, once your sister has left. Please don't worry. She is going to be conveyed to a safe location, with people who can care for her… condition."

Anna's eyes narrowed. "I will be able to at least say goodbye to her, I presume?"

"That… may not be possible, I'm afraid. I would prefer you remain as far away as possible, to avoid any risk of… injury."

"Injury!" Anna snorted. "Injury? My sister would never hurt me!"

"And what would you call this?" Ramberg asked, gesturing towards Anna's bandages.

Anna flushed. "Never willingly hurt me, I mean! The avalanche was an accident!"

"Caused by her snow, her storm. I am sure, my dear niece, that your sister would never want to hurt you. Even though you are now to be queen in her place."

"Wait, what? You think she's angry at me?"

"I couldn't say, my dear. You have taken her rightful place as ruler of Arendelle, while she must live in exile in a remote and isolated underground facility. She may well be resentful. Even if she harbours no actual wish to injure you, her… subconscious may cause her powers to… well, I'd prefer not to say, Your Majesty," Ramberg finished with a slight bow.

"No, not Elsa," Anna said, shaking her head. "Surely not Elsa?" She looked hard at her uncle. "Surely not…?"

"Best not to risk it," he said. "Who knows what goes on inside her head. She did, after all, keep this a secret from you all your life," the duke said, waving towards the windows, which were dappled with snow.

Anna frowned. She was sure her uncle wasn't meaning to, but she was starting to wonder if she really could trust her sister….

.

* * *

 **KNOWTES:**

Okay, this was ridiculous. Three months delay? What on earth happened? Actually, I know exactly what happened. On top of this being a very important chapter in building the relationship between Susan and Elsa, involving a lot of talking scenes that could really come in any order (but shouldn't if I want to build their relationship and the themes appropriately), I have been very busy in real life with things that not only take time, but are very distracting from writing. Nothing bad, mind (prepping lectures for uni, among other things), so there is that at least.

At any rate, there really aren't any factual notes for this chapter. It's almost entirely two people just talking together about their feelings. There's a few song quotes snuck in, because that's an indulgence of mine, but really not much else to talk about, other than the (hopefully) obvious themes.

Once again, my apologies for the delay, and I do hope the next chapter is up rather faster….


	8. The Glitch in the Matrix

**8\. The Glitch in the Matrix**

"Smug little…" Monger snarled under his breath, slamming the door to their rooms.

"Who?" Link asked, looking up from the Norwegian edition of the _Sports Illustrated_ Swimsuit Edition, which he had been reading solely for the pictures, remembering his days as the Monster from Cocoa Beach. "Cockroach?"

"Hardly…" the insect-headed scientist said calmly, not looking up from the device he was busy working on.

"Me?" Bob asked, pointing a Link.

"Ramberg!" Monger spat. "He still refuses to let me see the princess—I mean, see the queen! Says she can't see anyone until she is properly healed!"

Cockroach glanced up. "Really? I didn't think she was that badly hurt."

"She's not, from what I heard," Monger said, going to the sideboard and pouring himself a large glass of akevitt. He took a swallow, and made a face. "What I wouldn't give for some decent Bourbon. Kentucky rye…."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is I can't see the damned queen," Monger growled. "Bureaucratic nonsense! They want us to take the queen— I mean, take the princess—and just go! Leave them in this mess!"

Cockroach nodded. "I agree—they seem to be pinning everything on the assumption that, with Princess Elsa removed, the snow will melt. But I can't even be sure it will—does Elsa merely set the conditions for this snow, and it remains even without her, or is her presence required. Of course," he mused, rubbing his chin, "there's no harm in removing her for a short period to test the supposition. A brief holiday, perhaps, during which we can see what happens to Arendelle in her absence."

"And if the snow doesn't melt once she is gone?"

Cockroach frowned, looking worried for a moment, then shook his head. "No, no, it's definitely localized. The ice has not spread beyond a fifty kilometre radius, roughly to the eastern edge of Arendelle, the far side of the island of Vestvågøya. It's not an indefinite phenomenon—there's a definite incidence curve: the closer to North Peak, where Queen—where Princess Elsa is, the deeper the snow. And reports state that the periphery is constantly melting and then re-accumulating in step with the weather patterns over North Peak. With her gone, I am fairly confident that Arendelle will be safe." He paused, frowning. "I am not entirely sure if I can say the same about Area 52, however."

"We have a thermal isolation unit she can live in," Monger said. "You remember, the one built for the Abominable Snowman."

"Oh yes, Joe," Cockroach said. "Poor Joe. Who would ever have guessed that Abominable Snowmen would actually melt…."

"Don't blame me," Link said. "It was Bob who turned up the thermostat. All I said was that it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey in there. You were the one who started arguing about the myth that it comes from navy cannonballs getting cold or something, and forgot to keep an eye on Bob."

"Unfortunately he was much more stupid back then, and literally didn't think. A pity, indeed. Especially as I never got to finish my experiments on the Snowman, and the Nepalese government won't allow us to collect more—some nonsense about endangered species or something. Well, they wouldn't be endangered if we only set up a captive breeding program. Oh well, never mind," Cockroach said with an exasperated sigh. He turned back to his work, and made a few adjustments.

"What'cha workin' on, Doc?" Link asked, ambling over. He prodded at a delicate piece of apparatus, which fell over. Cockroach barely caught it before it smashed onto the floor, and glared at Link.

"Really?" he asked, his right eyebrow arching. "You are clearly bored. Go help distribute the supplies we brought or something. You and Bob."

"I agree," Monger said. "Excellent idea. You two, get!"

"It's cold out there!" Link moaned, and Bob nodded.

"So wear your thermal gear!"

"What, cover up this body? This perfection?" Link asked, running his hands over his scaly pecs.

"As much as possible, please," Cockroach said with another deep sigh.

* * *

Elsa lay awake, nestled on the snow. She couldn't sleep. Looking up, she could see the great bulk of the giantess, wrapped in her massive sleeping bag. They had dined on some more of Susan's giant Hoo-ah bar, washed down with melted snow, and while Susan appeared eager to talk more, Elsa wasn't feeling up to it. She wasn't sure what she was feeling, really—she seemed to swing between bursts of euphoria and depression. Was that what freedom was like? Fear and joy at the same time? Joy at being able to be what she was, and fear at… at the same time, she realised with a sigh.

She heard Susan let out a light sound, and then the giantess started to roll over, facing her. Elsa kept a wary eye on her, just in case. Susan had carefully positioned herself as far away from Elsa as possible, just in case, and there was no risk of her being flattened, but it was still nerve-wracking to watch the fifteen-metre giantess move and shift. She came to rest facing Elsa, her eyes closed and a small smile on her mouth.

"What are you dreaming of, I wonder?" Elsa whispered, standing up. She moved closer to Susan, standing right by the giantess's huge face. The weak midnight sun filtered through the tent, illuminating Susan's features clearly. Elsa let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding as the true size of the other woman became clear. She had never been this close to Susan, and it was astounding the scale on which she was built. Elsa felt like a little doll come to life as she gazed at the giantess. Somehow, up close like this, she was both scarier and less scary than seeing her from afar. The giantess's tremendous scale was inescapable, but so was her calm expression, her gentle half-smile.

"I envy you," Elsa whispered. "You have accepted what you are. And you are happier for it. As for me…."

Glancing at her hands, she flicked a stray bit of ice off with a sigh. She shivered, but not from cold, even though she was only wearing her thin shift, having removed her rather dirty and torn coronation robes to sleep. Then she padded over to the entrance, and pushed it aside. The sun was low in the sky, but she could still make out the slowly shifting green curtains of the aurora, dim in the distant heavens. She had always liked the aurora, so elegant, so beautiful, soaring so far above the petty, mundane concerns of the world. A world where she never really fitted in. Elsa let out a deep sigh, letting them take her fears, her worries, replacing them with a great sense of peace.

They looked impossible, almost magical. For thousands of years people had ascribed supernatural origins to them. But they weren't remotely magical: simply highly-charged particles from the sun interacting with the atmosphere, deflected and funnelled by Earth's magnetic field and colliding with molecules in the atmosphere to produce that unworldly glow. Green from oxygen, blue from nitrogen, red from both, and other colours from a mixing of these three primaries, overlapping and mingling.

Elsa lifted up her hand, and made a movement with her fingers. A glowing streamer appeared, coalescing into tiny snowflakes that whirled and danced as she moved her hand. She added another streamer, and another, letting them blend and twist together, sparkling in the low light from the sun. Her own miniature aurora, and even more mysterious. She knew exactly what powered the grand light shows Arendelle was famous for; she had no idea, none at all, what powered her own, smaller but more dangerous shows. Perhaps that, too, was a good reason to leave, to become a living lab specimen where far brighter minds than hers might be able to understand the source of her curse, and offer a cure. After all, there was a sound scientific reason for the aurora, one Elsa knew from her studies. It wasn't magic, it wasn't witchcraft—an explanation had been found. _An explanation would be found for her as well_ , she told herself. _There is always an answer, always_. One day she would know, with as much certainty as she knew what caused the aurora, what lay behind her own powers. And then… perhaps… they could be controlled.

Or even removed….

But until then, if it ever happened, she would remain a dangerous monster. An instrument of destruction and death. The Snow Queen of ancient legend, once more come to life to wreak havoc on the land. There was no escape, no fleeing from what she was.

A stray breeze caught her slip, fluttering it around her legs. Elsa looked down on it, her face expressionless, then suddenly ripped it off, followed by her bra and panties, tossing them into the air and letting a gust of snow carry them out of sight. Completely naked, she stood in the snow, arms outstretched and face raised to the aurora, slowly turning around, feeling as if she was absorbing its unworldly light through every pore on her pale skin. Then she made a sweeping gesture over her body, ice streaming from her hands. It flowed and shifted, forming into a long, elegant gown of crystals, reflecting and refracting the aurora and the low, weak sunlight. Elsa glanced down at herself and smiled, before continuing to slowly twirl as a diaphanous train slowly grew from the back of her dress, curving around her as she spun.

Then she stopped, facing the tent, and a lopsided smirk slowly spread across her face. She raised her right hand, and pointed it at the tent. A streamer of tiny, razor-sharp ice particles shot over the snow, ripping into the fabric, disintegrating it.

* * *

"There you are, Doc," Monger groused, stirring his non-fat double venti, organic chocolate brownie caramel frappuccino, extra hot with one inch of foam. "Where have you been all night?"

Cockroach's huge eyes opened wide, staring at the general, who could see himself reflected in the myriad of tiny lenses that made up the insectoid scientist's eyes. Monger took a step back, and tugged his uniform straight as Cockroach cackled insanely.

"I have it!" he crowed.

"Have what? Have lost your mind? I'd agree with that," Link muttered, glaring at Cockroach over his lutefisk.

"I solved it! I solved it! Well, not the big question, no," Cockroach quickly added, glancing from Monger to Link and back again, a more than normally insane grin on his face. "But the small question—how to get Queen Elsa—Princess Elsa, as she now is again—back to Area 52 without risking an accident to MF-1."

"How?" Monger asked.

"These!" Cockroach said, grinning like a madman as he held out two large grey rounded boxes with rubber cuffs on the ends.

Monger raised his eyebrows. "Those?"

"I have developed special gauntlets that can counteract her icing power," Cockroach said, his eyes glittering in the firelight. "Each one contains a kilogram of high-level nuclear waste, enough to instantly melt any snow she produces—it just turns into water, and we can jettison that as we fly!"

"Well done, Doc—wait, what?" Monger gasped. "Nuclear waste? Where did you get that from?"

"Oh, I never travel without a few essential supplies," Cockroach said, cackling. "Uranium, remote detonators, a toothbrush, that sort of thing."

"Uh, are they shielded?" Link asked, taking a few steps back from the mad scientist.

"Oh, yes," Cockroach said. "Mostly."

"Mostly!" Monger shot.

"There's just a smidgeon of leakage," Cockroach admitted, holding his finger and thumb a few millimetres apart. "Nothing to worry about, not for short-term exposure."

Monger rolled his eyes. "Just keep it away from me. You and Ginormica may be immune to radiation, but the rest of us are not."

"Is Elsa?" Link asked.

"I doubt it," Monger said. "So you better be sure about this, Cockroach," he added, glaring at the mad scientist.

"Oh, I am, I am," Cockroach said, nodding quickly. "I would never hurt her, don't worry. Honestly, she'd get more radiation during the flight than she would from these."

Link slurped down the last of the pickled herring, then let out a large and fairly noxious burp. "Why not just knock her out?"

Cockroach gasped. "Knock her out!" He drew himself to his full height and glared over at the green ape. "I, sir, am a gentleman! I do not knock women out!"

"No, you idiot," Link said with a smirk. "Just give her some sleeping pills. Knock her out for the trip."

"Ah." Cockroach's antennae drooped. "Yes, well…." He gazed at his nuclear gauntlets, and made a face. "I suppose, in a pinch, that might work. But it's just not FUN…."

* * *

Susan yawned, and her eyes fluttered open. She felt a cool breeze on her cheek, ruffling her hair.

"Where… what…?" she mumbled, trying to get her eyes to focus. Then she gasped. She was no longer in the tent, but lying under a gigantic roof that glittered and sparkled in the low sun. At first she thought it was glass, but then she realised with a start that it was ice. Pure, flawless, ice.

"Good morning."

Susan twisted around at the sound of Elsa's voice, and gasped again. The young royal was sitting on a large, elegant throne of ice, raised up about ten feet on a foundation of more ice. Elsa seemed to be sparkling, miniature rainbows cascading around her head and body. Susan blinked, and looked closer, then her eyes widened. Elsa had a tall crown of ice on her head, and her dirty coronation gown had been replaced by a dress of pure ice, with a long train of spun ice floating down beside her. A sceptre of ice was held in her right hand.

"Uh, good… morning," Susan said, swallowing. "You've… your… uh, dress…."

Elsa gave her a cold smile. "Like it? I think it suits me better than those human robes."

"Er… human robes? You are human, you know. As human as anyone."

Elsa shook her head. "No. I am not. And I never have been. For what am I now but an ice monster? Ice in my veins, ice in my heart."

"It's… it doesn't have to be that way, you know." Susan said nervously. "You'll feel better soon, I know."

"Oh, I'm not upset or depressed," Elsa said, then gave a light laugh. "I'm perfectly happy—this is what I am; this is the real me. And I've never felt so free."

"Uh, I guess," Susan said slowly, not at all sure how to respond. "I suppose I started feeling a lot better after I realised I didn't want to go back to my old life after all. But then, my old life was so small and limited—not like being a queen at all."

Elsa gave a most un-queenly snort. "You have no idea how limited the life of a queen can be. When your every move is planned, your every statement rehearsed. No, I shall find much greater freedom in prison. Isn't that delightfully ironic?"

"Uh, I guess," Susan repeated, still not sure what sort of mood Elsa was in. She seemed perfectly happy and content, but there was a bitter, harsh edge there as well. "Er, what happened to the tent?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation to more neutral topics.

"I got rid of it," Elsa said. She gestured to the canopy of ice, her eyes hard and glittering with defiance. "What do you think? Is this not a more suitable encampment for the Snow Queen?"

Susan glanced up, seeing the intricate designs worked into the ice canopy, which soared up some seventy or eighty feet. "It's… amazing!" she breathed. She shifted onto her knees, and looked around, marvelling at the sheer beauty of the ice around her. "It's like a tent—a pavilion of ice! Beautiful! Straight out of a fairy tale! You're so amazing! Look at the beauty you can create." She sighed, and looked down at her titanic hands. "I wish I could create beauty like that. All I can do is destroy. I could smash this pavilion down in a minute, but it would take a lifetime to ever make it. You can create such beauty, such wonders…. You're not a monster—you're… you're an artist."

"I wish I could be an artist," Elsa said. Then she gave the giantess a quick smile. "Or actually an architect. I used to spend a lot of time in my room just drawing plans. Sometimes I would hate the fact that I was a princess, that I would have to be queen, when all I wanted was to create beautiful buildings, stunning spaces."

"Perhaps now you're not going to be the queen, you can," Susan suggested.

"No. I can never be what I want. My whole life has been about what I have to be, not what I want to be. To be the good girl, the princess, the queen…."

"I'm sure once we're in America, you could do whatever you liked, be whatever you liked. It's the land of freedom, after all."

Elsa's lip curled in contempt. "Not nearly as much as you imagine. Nor will I be free there, either. But… maybe my country will be free of me. Free of my curse…."

"Don't think of it as a curse, but as a gift," Susan told her. "It's what makes you unique, special. Like my size and strength. I had to leave my home, too. I can never live there again, ever. But I don't mind, because what I have gained is so much more. And the same with you—you'll be a hero one day, I know. No, a superhero."

"Some hero," Elsa snorted. "Look around you, look at my once-green land. I have destroyed it…. With a single thought, a single uncontrolled thought, I have destroyed my country, burying it beneath the lifeless ice. A hero? No, I am a monster."

"Uh…." Susan was saved from trying to respond by her communicator beeping loudly at her. "Oh, sorry, I think the general's calling me. Oh crap, I completely forgot to check in last night. I hope he's not too mad…." She rummaged in her pack and fished out her communicator, and turned it on.

"Ginormica, there you are! Why didn't you report in last night?" Monger's voice sounded in her ear, tinny and remote, but definitely quite annoyed.

"Sorry, sir. We were—I was distracted. I mean, I forgot. I'm sorry. Look, we're only a few hours away from Reine now—we should be there by about lunch. Then Elsa can see her sister, and they can talk about what's best. I mean, do we really have to separate them?"

"I'm afraid we do," Monger told her. "The Prime Minister has decided; Princess Elsa has agreed. Queen Anna has also agreed."

"But if they just met, and could talk…."

"That's a no go, repeat a no go, on talking. The queen does not wish to see her sister."

"She what now?" Susan gasped. "Why doesn't she want to see her sister?"

"She is concerned, the Prime Minister told me, about her safety. Apparently she no longer feels she can fully trust Elsa."

"Oh…." Susan looked down at the Snow Queen, still seated on her ice throne, and swallowed. "I, er, understand, sir. Ginormica out." Susan put the headset back, and sat and looked at Elsa.

"Er…" she stammered, then started again. "I'm afraid you won't be able to see your sister."

"Why not?" Elsa's voice was dangerously calm, and Susan swallowed.

"Uh, well, it seems… she doesn't want to see you."

There was a brief silence, then Susan started as the ice sceptre in Elsa's hand suddenly crazed and shattered with a loud crack.

"She… doesn't want to see her own sister?" Elsa took a series of deep breaths, then faced Susan calmly. "No, of course not—why should she? Why should anyone want to have anything to do with me? I am the Snow Queen…."

Susan ducked as a large chunk of ice fell from the roof. It was followed by another, then another, ice creaking and groaning and cracking, louder and louder, until with a tremendous groaning and a series of cracks like thunder, the main spars shattered, raining ice shards around them. In a few seconds the elaborate edifice had been reduced to a featureless mass of rubble.

Susan had covered her head, but none of the ice had hit her. Now she gradually removed her arms, and looked at Elsa in shock.

"What… why? What did you do that for? It was so beautiful!"

"Beautiful? What beauty do you see here; do you see out there?" Elsa said, gesturing to the snow-covered hills. "Frozen death is all I can create. What beauty is there in death? Everything I touch is ruined, destroyed by my curse. Everything…." She stopped and sighed. "No wonder Anna refuses to see me."

"I know your sister said… what she did, but… maybe she's just scared?" Susan suggested. "I know my friends, my cousins, they were scared of me when we first met after, well, after this happened to me. After I became a giantess, a monster."

"She's scared? _She's_ scared? What does she think _I_ am, then? What does she think I've been all my life?" Elsa spat. "No, this is just Anna's style. Don't face your problems, go off and have fun, pretend they don't exist. Pretend I don't exist."

"It's just that… I'm sure things would be better if you stayed, with people who love you. Like your sister…."

"You think this is an easy choice? One that I want to make?" Elsa shot. "If I love my sister, if I love my country, I have to leave them—I have to! Besides, how much does she really love me? How much could anyone love me? I've spent my entire life trying to avoid people, avoiding getting close to anyone." Her face set, her eyes staring out at the snow. "Love? I'm not even sure I know what that is. I am the Snow Queen, after all—my heart is supposed to be ice, right?"

She turned away, staring out over the fjord, but not before Susan had caught a glimpse of a tear, frozen to Elsa's pale cheek.

* * *

"I've been thinking," Cockroach said, entering the Monster Force quarters and nodding at Monger, who was now reading reports behind a large wooden desk after talking with Susan.

"Always a dangerous sign," Link quipped, not looking up from his copy of _Norwegian Surfer_ magazine.

"Only because actually thinking would short-circuit your brain," Cockroach said, arching an eyebrow. "Assuming there's any left inside that green scaled skull of yours after all the abuse you give it."

"Just a warning: I am not in the mood for games," Monger growled, shooting both monsters a hard stare. Then he stabbed a blunt finger at Cockroach. "What have you been thinking about?"

"I, er, the queen—I mean, Elsa. Or, to be more specific, her powers."

"How to control them?"

"Well, no, not as such, not yet," Cockroach said. "More along the lines of what they might be. How they might happen."

"And…?" Monger asked, drumming his fingers on the desk.

"Have you heard of the Simulation Argument?"

"No. And I don't want a three-hour lecture on it, either," Monger said. "Give it to me in one sentence."

"Just one sentence?" Cockroach raised both eyebrows this time. Then he sighed, and took a deep breath. "The Simulation Argument is the idea, postulated by a number of physicists and philosophers, that any sufficiently advanced technology will at some stage run a complete simulation of the universe, or of a universe, rather, and that, given sufficiently advanced technology, by which I mean computer processing power, this simulation could be so perfect as to even simulate thought—that is, consciousness, in other words; and so we would not even be aware that we were inside a simulation, save for a few clues, a few hints that we might find if we look carefully enough in the right direction, such as the recent discovery of what appear to be error-correcting codes in super-symmetry, which is a field of string theory, or, and more germanely to my hypothesis, errors in how physics works, such as a young lady being able to cast an everlasting winter, or, more broadly, magic; as if we assume the universe is an artificial construction, its physical laws are thus artificial, and can be manipulated or broken, just like in a real—I mean common or garden—computer program that we…."

"Stop before you turn purple, man," Monger said, holding up a hand as Cockroach panted for breath. "What is this nonsense? Are you trying to tell me that the universe is… artificial, and that… that the Snow Queen—Elsa—is a… a glitch in the matrix?"

"Precisely!" Cockroach said, beaming. "I always said you were smarter than you pretended to be!"

"You never said that," Link shot. "You always said he was an overbearing martinet with delusions of grandeur!"

"That, too," Cockroach said coolly while Monger glared at him. "Listen, General, if I'm right, if everything we think is real is in fact just a simulation, then what we think of as magic could be real—Elsa could be able to manipulate this universe, our universe, just as someone mods a computer game. Somehow, Elsa can step outside our universe, in a sense, changing the rules."

Monger drummed his fingers on the desk again, tapping out _The Battle Hymn of the Republic_ as he stared at the insect-headed scientist, not sure how to respond. "Do… do you think she does this deliberately?"

Cockroach shook his head. "Not in the sense of knowing what she is doing, no."

"I still don't get how this could be possible," Monger muttered, now tapping out _The_ _Battle Hymn of the Republic_ in double time.

"Remember, we know other universes exist, and that they have different physical laws," Cockroach added, leaning over the desk, his antennae drooping close to Monger. "Susan's quantonium comes from another universe, and obeys the physical laws there—I assume, not being able to properly compare them of course."

"So are you saying that Elsa has quantonium in her?" Link asked, putting down his magazine.

"No, not at all," Cockroach said. "I'm just saying that, like Susan, Elsa's power comes from a different universe. She can't access that universe directly, like Susan's quantonium, but, for some reason, she can manipulate our universe—she can access the simulation from the outside, so to speak. At least in this very limited way."

"So does that mean that witches, like in the stories, are real?" Link asked, looking extremely sceptical.

Cockroach nodded. "Or at least potentially real. Obviously not all are real. But there could have been enough…uh, glitches in the matrix, like Elsa, to provide a source for the stories."

"Woah, freaky," Link muttered.

"Indeed, my scaly friend. The implications are, as you so eloquently put it, freaky…."

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

Another long delay, sorry. This is not good. Life has been busy and distracting. And this was a hard chapter to wrap my head around, as it's not very direct—it's conversations and emotions, and they can happen in any old way, but need to happen organically and to build to something. At least that's the idea….

The island of Vestvågøya is the eastern of the two main islands of Lofoten. I hummed and hawed a lot about just how big to make Arendelle, but decided the geographical split there was the most logical for a separate nation. Not that geography always is the deciding factor, mind….

Freezing the balls off a brass monkey is often referred to as coming from the old days of fighting sail when cannonballs would be stored on deck on brass "monkeys" and when it was really cold, the different thermal contractions of brass and iron would cause the balls to fall off. There is absolutely no factual basis for this pack of nonsense whatsoever. Cockroach would indeed get most upset at it.

The colour production mechanism of the aurora is as described. Elsa being a bit of a science nerd would know this. I had to look it up….

I have no idea how Elsa transformed her dress into one of ice in the movie. It makes much more sense for her to simply take it off. I guess Disney wasn't happy about getting Elsa nude, but I have no such qualms…. But I have also imagined that perhaps the ice, if fine enough, could shred the fabric into dust, basically. One reason this chapter took so long is that I was wondering if Elsa should have her throne and gown of ice. In the end, I decided I would indulge myself. And it gives a way for Susan and Elsa to contrast their power, I suppose.

Monger's non-fat double venti, organic chocolate brownie caramel frappuccino, extra hot with one inch of foam is from the MVA movie. MF-1, if you've forgotten, is the designation of the Monster Force plane.

I don't think there's any such magazine as _Norwegian Surfer_ , but there is one called _Surfer_.

The Simulation Argument is also as I have presented it here. It sounds very fishy to me – almost designed to be logically unassailable by its nature. In other words, if it can happen it will, and in an infinite cosmos (vs a potentially finite universe) it must have. A bit like the ontological argument for God: if you can conceive of a perfect being, it must exist, since existence is a priori an attribute of a perfect being (wouldn't be very perfect if it didn't exist). I don't think either are sound arguments, but the Simulation one is good enough for my story….

 **28th March 2017** : PS: This delay is shameful. Work on the next chapter _**is**_ progressing, but very slowly. Partially as it's a tricky part of the story, but mainly as I seem to much busier than I used to be. I absolutely have **not** forgotten this story, and enjoy writing and creating new worlds and having characters interact too much to allow it to be incomplete. It WILL be updated... promise.


	9. These Empty Halls

**Chapter 9. These Empty Halls**

[ _Sincere apologies for the huge gap between chapters. I **am** committed to finishing this story. Now, where were we? Elsa had resigned herself to being taken away to Area 52 for the good of Arendelle. Anna is in hospital, being kept carefully away from anyone but the duke._ ]

* * *

"Good. I understand. The contract will be ready when you arrive. Hm? No, she won't be a problem. Yes, I know she was against it, but I've taken steps to… remove her objections. I have complete authority in this matter once more. Yes, that's right. Complete. Very well. I look forward to our mutual relationship."

The duke put the phone down and smiled. Then he stood up and walked to the window, beyond which snow was falling thickly.

There was a quick knock on the door. "Kom inn," the duke said, reverting back to Norwegian.

The door opened, and a young man stood there, looking nervous. The duke turned away, and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it, Hans?"

"Your Grace, the Storting is about to start."

"Good." Ramberg gestured to the window. "How much is out there now?"

"Over three metres has already accumulated, Your Grace, and the city's bulldozer and graders are working 24 hours a day to try and keep the essential roads clear."

The duke gave him a quick smile. "Well, the problem should be solved by the end of the day. The princess is returning to Reine, and then she can be relocated somewhere where she can't do any more damage to our country."

"Princess? Oh, sorry, of course," Hans said. "Princess Elsa. I forgot she's no longer queen."

"Indeed. We have a new queen, Queen Anna." The duke gave him a broad smile. "A queen who understands her place—her role. Do you have the draft contract for Weselton Oil? The one for the Storting's eyes?"

Hans nodded. "Here, Your Grace."

The duke took the proffered manila enveloped and flipped through it. "Good. Let's go. We should have no problems persuading the Storting there's a new regime in charge…."

The two men left the duke's study, and the door closed softly behind them. A moment later there was a slight scratching, scurrying sound from the darker recesses of the lofty ceiling, and a strange insect-like man in a white coat made his way down the wall. He stood for a moment, looking at the door the duke had left from.

"Or perhaps," he said slowly, stroking his chin, "you will!"

* * *

There was a quick knock on the door of the room Monger had been assigned to use as his office, in a wing of the castle.

"Come in. Or whatever that is in Norwegian," he called, not looking up from his paperwork.

Cockroach walked in. "Actually, General, 'Come in' in Norwegian is almost identical. It's 'Kom inn.' The spelling is not the same, of course."

"I'm fascinated," Monger said in a voice that clearly indicated the exact opposite. "What is it, Doctor? I'm very busy with these forms I need to fill in for Princess Elsa's admission to the Monster Containment Facility. Can you think of a good monster name for her? Not that weird Snødronning nonsense. Something American, like Snowy, only more monster-y."

"General, first, Snowy is a name for a dog, not a princess. And second, I have more pressing matters to discuss."

"What?"

"I have been doing some… uh, research," Cockroach began, "into the connection between the Duke of Ramberg and Weselton Oil. I have learned something which Anna—Queen Anna—needs to be informed of immediately."

Monger put his pen down, frowning. "This is not our issue, Cockroach. Drop it."

"I can't, General! There's a plot going on! A heinous plot to overthrow the monarchy!"

"Stop exaggerating," Monger said. "There is not, and if there were, ain't nothing wrong with overthrowing a monarchy now and then—you'll note the good ol' US of A managed rather well without one. Which I know is something you're still sore about," he added with a quick grin.

"No, General, this is serious! Elsa's being—"

Monger stood up. "Enough! I told you for the last time, Doc: the internal affairs of Arendelle are not our business! Uncle Sam does not meddle in other countries!"

"First, that's a blatant lie," Cockroach snapped, "and second, this is our business! Princess Elsa is now one of us—so she's our responsibility!"

"And we are going to take care of her," Monger growled. "Back home, at Area 52! And that's my final word! Dismissed!"

"Ingen tosk som en gammel tosk!" Cockroach muttered as he left.

"What was that?" Monger called.

"Nothing, nothing. Just some chemical formulas I need to remember." Cockroach closed the door behind him and rolled his eyes.

"Didn't go well?" the fish-ape asked, glancing over.

"Like I said, there's no fool like an old fool," Cockroach snarled. Then he took a deep breath, and looked happier. "Oh well. I shall just have to go over his head. Again. And possibly literally." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Now, which ward would the princess—the queen be in?"

* * *

"Uh, Deres Majestet…."

Anna stirred, wondering if she had heard a voice. She glanced around, but there was no one in the room.

"Er, Your Majesty. Please don't be alarmed," came the voice again, this time in English.

Now sure she wasn't dreaming, Anna rubbed her eyes and sat up, pushing her unkempt hair off her face. "Who is it? Who's there? Come in," she called in the same language.

"Uh, I'm already in," the voice said. "I do apologise for intruding like this, but I had little choice."

Not entirely sure if her ears were deceiving her, Anna looked up, to where the voice was coming from, and barely stopped herself from screaming. The insect-headed scientist, Dr Cockroach, was clinging to the ceiling, looking down at her from his huge amber eyes. He quickly scuttled over the to wall and down it, then jumped lightly to the floor.

"I am so very sorry for this, Your Majesty," he said, bowing low. "However, I had no choice."

"No… no choice?" Anna stammered, shifting to the far side of the bed, and grabbing the nurse call button.

"Please, don't call anyone," Cockroach asked, holding his hands up, palms out. "I absolutely mean you no harm. I'm here to help you. You and your sister."

"Elsa! Is she here?" Anna gasped, half-hiding her face under her sheet.

Cockroach shook his head. "No, she is still in the mountains, with Susan. But I had to see you, and your uncle had other ideas."

"Other ideas? What do you mean?" Anna asked, shifting her thumb from the button, but still keeping the device in her hand.

"He will not allow anyone to see you, or contact you," Cockroach explained. "There are, er, guards posted to ensure no one can. Hence my rather… unorthodox and impolite entry method."

"Guards…" Anna asked, raising her eyebrows. "But those are… he explained it—those are to protect me. In case my—in case the Snow Queen comes for me."

Cockroach shook his head. "Your Majesty, please believe me when I tell you they are not for your protection. They are there to prevent anyone seeing you, and to prevent you leaving."

"Prevent me…?" Anna gasped. "Why would he prevent me leaving?"

"Because of what I have learned," Cockroach told her.

Anna felt confused. "Learned? What's going on?"

"I, er, have to confess something," the English scientist said, looking as embarrassed as Anna supposed anyone with an insectoid head could. "You see, I… I have been keeping an eye on the duke. Or perhaps I should say, spying on him."

"What!" Anna gasped. "You've been spying on my uncle! Why? Are you a spy? What do you want?" She grabbed the call button. "You have ten seconds to explain, or I call the guards!"

"I will, I will," Cockroach told her quickly. "I didn't intend to, not at first. That's the truth. Originally, I just wanted to sneak into a few areas to examine records that weren't in the castle library."

"And then…?" Anna asked, her thumb poised over the button.

"And then… I heard a few things."

Anna's eyes narrowed. "What sort of things?"

"High—Majesty, I am afraid to report that your uncle may not… er… have your sister's best interests at heart."

"Explain. Now," Anna commanded, doing her best to look intimidating. She reached up and tried to smooth her unruly locks into a semblance of order, acutely aware that her pink Disney pyjamas were not as imposing as, say, a formal ball gown.

"Your… er, the duke has been negotiating with a company in Britain called Weselton Oil," Cockroach said.

Anna frowned. "I've heard that name somewhere before. Oh, yes, Uncle Mustela told me he was negotiating with them. What for? And what does this have to do with my sister?"

"He has negotiated a rather lucrative contract for them to buy Arendelle's North Sea oil reserves."

"Well… that's good, right?" Anna asked, wondering what the strange intruder was on about.

"Lucrative for him, Majesty," Cockroach told her. "Not lucrative for Arendelle. He intends to sell all rights to your oil to Weselton. Arendelle is highly dependent on oil sales—and if Weselton Oil controls your oil, they will control your country."

Anna's eyes opened wide. She stared at Cockroach, seeing the huge amber eyes gaze unblinkingly into her own.

"No…" she began, slowly shaking her head. "Uncle Mustela wouldn't do that. He wouldn't. He's always been there, taking care of us, ever since our parents died." She looked at Cockroach, her mouth set firmly. "You're lying. I don't know why, but you're lying."

"If I'm lying, Your Majesty, then why can you not leave this room?" Cockroach asked quietly.

"For my own protection, he said!" Anna shot back. "My sister's dangerous, or hadn't you heard? Look at what she did to me!"

Cockroach glanced at Anna's bandaged arm.

"My sympathies," he murmured. "Does it hurt much?"

"Well, no, it doesn't hurt a bit, actually, not now," Anna admitted. "But it's one reason I have to stay in here. To make sure there's no complications."

"And how long will that be?"

Anna shrugged. "A few more days, I guess. It's pretty boring, to be honest."

"And in the meantime, O Queen," Cockroach said, emphasizing the 'Queen,' "Who exactly is running your country?"

"Uncle Mustela, of course," Anna told him firmly. "He's been acting as regent the last three years—who better?"

"He's your father's younger brother, is he not? And, assuming your sister is no longer eligible to inherit the throne, that would make him… heir apparent, I believe. No, excuse me, heir presumptive, of course. First in line to inherit the Crocus Throne of Arendelle."

"So?"

"Merely clarifying his position, ma'am," Cockroach said with a slight bow. "And trying to clarify the facts. Which are that, at the moment, the Duke of Ramberg, next in line for the throne, is ruling Arendelle, and making lucrative deals with foreign companies that will leave your country much poorer."

"I don't know who you think you are, or what you're trying to insinuate," Anna snarled, "but as my English great-great-great… er, great grandmother famously said, _we are not amused_! Out!"

Cockroach bowed low. "As your Majesty commands. One question before I leave, however: did your sister ever mention Weselton Oil?"

"Yes, I guess she did a few times, come to think of it," Anna admitted. "She didn't like them, I remember. I remember one evening I even heard her shouting to Uncle Mustela about them. It was so unusual for Elsa to raise her voice at all—she must have been furious."

"And now your sister can no longer oppose the deal. How very convenient," Cockroach pointed out. "Well, I do apologise most sincerely for disturbing you, and for any insult I might have offered. By your leave," he finished, giving Anna a courtly bow.

After he left, Anna's frown of anger slowly vanished, to be replaced by a frown of worry.

* * *

Cockroach shivered, and pulled the thick fur collar closer around his face as he peered through the drifting snow into the gloom. After leaving Anna, he had returned to the castle, and asked the general if he could wait at the edge of town for Susan and Elsa. Monger had not asked him why, merely nodded. He had been taken by Captain Hansen to where the main road entered Reine, and while the captain waited in the truck, he had elected to stay outside, to ensure he didn't miss her.

He had been waiting for ages, and the pocket warmers he had quickly thrown together from an assortment of items he'd found in the castle's recycling room had not worked as well as his initial plans had suggested—they had rapidly increased in temperature after the first quarter of an hour, and he had been forced to throw them into the fjord, where they swiftly melted holes in the ice and then exploded.

He sighed, wondering how much longer Susan would be. Monger had told him that she and the former queen were due to arrive in an hour, but that was… how long ago now? Cockroach had no idea. His watch was on his wrist, and his wrist was encased in multiple layers of thermal clothing.

Then a slight tremor rippled through the ground. His insect senses were instantly on full alert. There was another, and another, growing in strength. Then he saw a titanic shape through the snow, dark against the slate-grey sky, and his heart soared at the sight.

"Susan!" he shouted out, waving his arms to attract the giantess's attention.

The huge shape materialized out of the snowstorm, revealing Susan's beautiful features. She saw him and smiled, her entire face lighting up in a way that he loved to see.

"Doc!" she called, brushing some snow from her platinum hair and stooping down. "You came to meet us? Aren't you cold? I thought you said cockroaches didn't like the cold?"

"We don't," Cockroach said firmly. "But I had to see you as soon as possible. Well, not you, so much, as Her Highness. Is the princess here?"

His eyes grew round as the snow swirled and spun, shooting up and then blasting straight out on all sides, huge spikes of ice streaming out from the trees and lamp posts, and then, in the sudden stillness, a white figure walked towards him. She was dressed in a gown of ice, with a hem that seemed to flow up from the snow-covered ground, and behind her a long train of snowflakes blended into the snow swirling around her. On her head was a tall crown of ice.

"I am not a princess. I am a queen. I am the Snow Queen."

"Uh, er, yes…" Cockroach stammered. "Er, well, that is…." He glanced up at Susan, who smiled again.

"Elsa's agreed to come with us to Area 52! Isn't that wonderful? A new friend!"

Cockroach looked at her curiously, sure she was only being so enthusiastic for Elsa's sake.

"I'm afraid I don't think that's a good idea," he said.

"Explain," Elsa said in a frosty tone. "Because I clearly cannot stay here."

"I'm afraid you have no choice," he said. "If you want to save your kingdom, you have to stay."

The swirling snow suddenly stopped. "Stay?" Elsa whispered. She blinked, and for a moment, Cockroach caught a glimpse of a frightened child in her face. But then the queenly mask returned. "No, you're wrong—I have to leave. Look at the ruin I have caused."

"Arendelle faces greater peril," Cockroach told her. "Its entire oil revenues are about to be sold."

"Sold?"

"Your uncle, the—" Cockroach began, but Elsa cut him off.

"Weselton!" Elsa spat. "How did those drittsekkene—?! I explicitly turned them down! I told my uncle to break off all negotiations!"

"I'm afraid it seems he did not," Cockroach told her. "He is about to sign an agreement with Weselton Oil."

"He doesn't have the power! It wouldn't be valid! Not without the queen's sig—" She broke off abruptly. "Anna! But she wouldn't!"

"She would, if she didn't realise what was at stake," Cockroach told her.

"Of course she wouldn't realise," Elsa snarled. "Not partying in Monaco or Nice all the time! She hasn't got a clue how to run the country!"

"The duke, it seems, has assured your sister that he is perfectly prepared to carry on acting as regent until your sister turns twenty-one."

Elsa's frown grew. "It was hard enough getting Uncle Mustela to give me any government papers when I consistently demanded them. In Anna's case… she no doubt expects to be able to just continue her party-girl lifestyle as queen, and let our uncle do the actual ruling." Then she shook her head. "No, no—I can't worry about that. I can't. I have to leave. I have to. Otherwise my poor sister will be queen of a dead country."

"She'll be queen of a poor country if the duke gets his way," Cockroach noted.

"Better poor than dead!" Elsa shot back. She held up her pale hands. "I can't stay! I can't! The only thing I can do to help her is leave! As soon as possible!"

"I think Doc's right," Susan said, one hand sheltering the mad scientist from the worst of the snow. She looked around. "After all, another day won't matter at this stage. And if you can help your sister…."

Elsa grimaced. "I wish I could help her. I've tried to help her all her life. Even if that meant avoiding her, for her own safety. No, I can help her best by leaving. Immediately." She looked past Cockroach, and nodded. "Captain Hansen. Please ensure I am ready to travel at the earliest possible moment."

"Of course, Highness. If you would come with me, I shall take you somewhere safe to wait."

"Not a minute longer than necessary." Elsa looked around at the deep snow, the ice covering the small city, and sighed deeply. "Because I am a monster… who is destroying her home…."

* * *

"How are you feeling, my dear?"

"Perfectly fine, Uncle Mustela," Anna said, forcing a smile. Was the mad English scientist right? The thought that her uncle might be betraying her—and her sister—made her feel sick. Unlike normal children, she didn't have the luxury of having just an uncle—she also had a rival, a contender for the throne. "Uncle, I'm going back to the castle today. And inform the American general that I want to talk with him."

The duke's expression barely flickered. "I don't think that would be a good idea, my dear," he said smoothly. "Even if your health permitted it. the weather outside is too dangerous to go out in. Also, Princess Elsa has not yet left for the United States, and if she discovers where you are, it… might not end well," he added, glancing pointedly at Anna's bandaged arm.

"Are you telling me I may not leave this room?" Anna asked, staring up at him.

He gave her a quick smile. "Just for now. It's for your own good. Don't worry about the kingdom: I'm taking care of everything."

"Including with Weselton Oil?" Anna shot, giving a look of triumph as the duke's impenetrable demeanour briefly cracked. He stared at her coldly.

"I assure you, there is nothing for you to worry about," he said softly.

Anna reached over to her bandages and ripped them off, ignoring the look of shock on the duke's face. She rubbed her arm, and flexed it. It felt perfectly normal.

"What I am worried about, Prime Minister," she said, deliberately avoiding his name, "is the billions of krone Arendelle stands to lose by selling our oil fields to Weselton Oil. And the precise amount of money you personally stand to make by this deal."

"I do assure you, my dear, there is nothing to worry about. I don't know how you could possibly have heard such idle rumours, but I assure you there is no truth to them—none whatsoever."

"I want to see all papers you have regarding Weselton Oil," Anna told him. "And I want to be party to all future negotiations."

"Really, that would be a most tedious waste of your time," the duke said, smiling gently at her. "I was thinking that perhaps your first royal visit might be more important. The Maldives, perhaps, would make a suitable destination. Or perhaps Tahiti."

"Tahiti! Oh yes! No, wait, what? I… I don't believe it," Anna sighed. She took a deep breath, and glared at her uncle. "Don't think you're going to get away with this. I'm going to go straight back to the castle right now!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, my dear," the duke said. "For your own safety, you must remain here."

"What? You can't!" Anna gasped. "Uncle Mustela, you can't keep me locked up! You can't just shut the door and go!"

"Anna, I've looked after you and your sister ever since my dear brother died, along with your wonderful mother. I've taken care of this country, and you, and ensured that no word of your sister's, er, problem… ever leaked." He stepped closer, leaning over the bed, and Anna was immediately thrust back to when she was about five or so and had got into trouble for yet another rambunctious game gone wrong. "So you will listen to me, and you will obey me."

Anna glanced up at his forbidding face, then away again, trying to muster up enough courage to defy the man who had been like a second father to her. For a moment she almost gave in, and then she thought her sister, of how strong she was. "No," she said in a quiet voice. "I… I am… I am the queen. You will not sell our oil."

The duke sighed. "Until you are twenty-one, I am legally regent. You may be queen, but I rule Arendelle."

"Then I will go see Elsa, tell her to be queen again—she's old enough—she can stop you!" Anna shot back.

"That's not going to happen," the duke told her. "Elsa is going to be taken to America. You won't see her again."

A sudden jolt stabbed through Anna's heart, like a spear of ice in her breast. "I… I won't see her? No! I'm going to her now!"

She struggled to get up, but the duke pushed her back down, his face showing anger for the first time.

"You stupid little girl! Do you really think I intend to let either of you stop me?" He slapped her, hard, across the cheek, then strode out of the room. Weeping from the pain and anger and humiliation, Anna heard him order the guards doubled, and allow no one, no matter whom, access in or out. There was no doubt. She was now a prisoner. As much a prisoner as her sister.

* * *

"Captain, prepare the royal helicopter," Ramberg ordered. "Her Majesty should be evacuated before the situation becomes any worse."

"Worse, sir?" Captain Hansen asked.

"I don't want to take any risks. Not until Elsa is safely removed to that American monster prison. Queen Anna's safety is paramount."

"What about the weather?" Hansen asked. "What if another snowstorm hits?"

"We have a device that should counteract Elsa's snow powers, thanks to that mutant scientist," the duke said. "So long as she wears them, she believes she can control her curse. However, I don't know how long the illusion will last. So we cannot delay. I expect to hear that Her Majesty has left within half an hour."

"Uh, very good, sir. And… where should she be evacuated to?"

"The snow only affects Arendelle, so take her to Norway. Tromso. I'll contact the Norwegian authorities."

"Very well, sir."

Ramberg dismissed the captain, then pressed his intercom.

"Sir?"

"Get me Weselton Oil."

"Right away, sir."

In a few minutes the phone rang, and the duke picked it up.

"This is Ramberg. There were a couple of slight problems, but I have dealt with them. Yes, that's right. The problems will be eliminated. Both of them. The former queen will be removed from the country, and the current queen… will be removed as well. How? Oh, haven't you heard? We're experiencing terrible weather here. It's not safe for flying, not at all…."

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

Again, my apologies for the delay. This was a chapter where I wrote and rewrote numerous scenes, deleting them and then reinstating them, switching the order, and basically trying to keep everyone acting in character and logically consistently yet in a way that placed them all where I need them to be.

I hope all the Norwegian is correct. I've done my best to check. It should be obvious what "Kom inn" is, and "Ingen tosk som en gammel tosk!" should be "No fool like an old fool!" "Deres Majestet " is "Your Majesty." Corrections are welcome, of course.

"Snowy" being the name of a dog is a reference to Tintin, of course.

The krone is the official currency of Scandinavian countries, so it's almost certain Arendelle, which is a Scandinavian nation, would use it.

The difference between a "heir apparent" and a "heir presumptive" is that the "apparent" is guaranteed their place by the order of succession. In other words, no birth can dislodge them. No one can dislodge Prince Charles from his place in the line of succession, for example, nor Prince William. A "heir presumptive" is someone who can be displaced, on the other hand. The duke's position will be affected by any children the queen of Arendelle will have, for example: they will take precedence over him.

Do I need to knowte that it was Queen Victoria who is supposed to have said "We are not amused"? It's commonly used to show how strait-laced she was, with the Royal We to boot. In fact, Victoria was known for having a very good sense of humour, and she was (intending to) speak for everyone, not just herself. (For what it's worth, her granddaughter said Victoria herself denied ever saying it. In fact, one of her diary entries says, regarding a play she saw, "I was very much amused indeed!").

There will **absolutely** not be as long a wait until the next chapter. It's almost done, and in fact was going to be part of this chapter until it grew long.


	10. Break the Frozen Heart

**Chapter 10. Break the Frozen Heart**

 **NOTICE** : The site notifications were busted when I posted the previous chapter. If you haven't read **Chapter 9, These Empty Halls** , then this chapter won't make much sense. Mind you, it might not make much sense even if you have….

[Last time on _Legend of the Snow Queen_ : The duke has been conspiring with Weselton Oil. Susan and Elsa have returned, and Anna has realized she is a prisoner.]

* * *

The office door banged open and Monger strode out, dressed in his white Arctic gear.

"Monsters! Or Link and Bob! Assemble in the main hanger at the airport, stat! Pronto! Now! Or even sooner!"

"Yay!" Bob cried, waving several arms in the air. "Are we off on another wacky adventure, General?"

"I'll whack you if you keep wittering on! Ginormica's back, with the—with Elsa. Let's get moving! Time's a-wasting!"

"What's the rush?" Link growled, his mouth full of raw cod. "Can't I finish this first? It's good stuff, this Arendelle cod. Nothing like fresh from the sea. Sure beats that frozen crap you feed me back in the States."

"Here, let me help," Bob said, and before Link could react, the gelatinous blue mass had absorbed the entire plate of cod, along with the plate, and a substantial chunk of the table into the bargain.

"Oi!" Link shouted. He shoved his hand into Bob and managed to extract one fish before it was dissolved, while Monger stood there fuming.

"Get moving, you lot!" he cried. "You're all too slow! I've been ready for hours!" he added, pulling on his gloves.

"I've been ready for seconds!" Bob called, pretending to pull on gloves. "And thirds!"

"I'm not," Link muttered, gulping down his fish as he struggled into his thermal gear. "This is why I never wear clothes! I hate all this cold! Why couldn't the Queen of Tahiti have developed hot chocolate powers or something?"

"First, there is no queen of Tahiti," Monger said. "It's a French colony. And second, you don't even like chocolate."

"I like it more than snow," Link shot back, fastening his jacket over his broad scaly chest. "For one thing, it's warmer!"

"Right, let's go!" Monger ordered, pointedly ignoring Link. He led the other monsters out to the front of the castle, where several snow blowers were working to keep the path reasonably clear. A military half-track truck was waiting in the courtyard, with Captain Hansen at the wheel, and in a few moments they were proceeding through the snow-covered town.

"Yikes. Look at it all. How much more is going to fall?" Link asked, looking up at the houses, covered in a thick layer of snow.

"We just don't know," Hansen said. "There's already more than three metres. Considering that the town doesn't usually see more than half a metre, I'm worried that some of these older houses won't be able to take the weight."

"Steep roofs, though," Monger commented, peering out of the window as the truck slowly made its way through the old, narrow streets. "That should help."

"It does, to an extent," Hansen admitted. "But the snowdrifts piled against the doors are another problem—the Norwegian Army is helping, now that their icebreaker's here, but as soon as they clear one street, it gets filled again."

"Oh look! A penguin!" Bob called.

Link rolled his eyes. "No, Bob. That's just more snow. Just lots more snow…."

"We're here!" Monger called as the truck drove into the aircraft hanger the initial briefing had been in. They climbed out and headed over to Susan, who was seated cross-legged warming her hands over an industrial heater, with Cockroach on her knee. She turned as they approached, smiling.

"Good to see ya, Giny!" Link called up.

"Thanks, Linkster," she said. "You too."

"Well? Where's the princess?" Monger asked, looking around. "We were told you and she had arrived."

Susan's face fell. "She was taken away almost as soon as we got here."

"Really?" Monger frowned. "Where?"

"I didn't understand where, exactly, as it was in Norwegian. Sorry," Susan said. "But Elsa said I shouldn't worry; she was going to be taken care of."

"I thought we were going to take care of her," Bob commented. "Oh, another bird!"

"Yes, why were we taken here?" Monger asked.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," Captain Hansen said. "I was simply ordered to take you to where, er, the giantess was. Oh, the prime minister has asked me to convey his personal thanks to you, Ginormica, for all your help in saving our small country."

"Don't mention it," Susan said, biting her lip and glancing away. "I don't deserve any thanks. Not for this…."

"So where is the princess?" Link asked.

"Princess Elsa is safe, in a special ice-proof chamber I believe," Hansen said. "I'm afraid I don't know the details."

"She's not here?" Link asked, rolling his eyes. "What did we have to come all this way for, then? I could have been waiting back at the castle, where it's warm and they have cod."

"A slight failure of communication," Hansen said. "My apologies. Our princess is being prepared for her journey. She should be ready to travel soon. I understand she has been fitted with the anti-snow devices Doctor Cockroach created for her."

"Wait, you can't use those!" Cockroach exclaimed. "They're not perfected! By which I mean… they don't actually work. I couldn't get enough plutonium-239."

"Well, so far they seem to be holding," Hansen noted, looking nervously at the mad scientist.

"Interesting," Cockroach said, rubbing his chin. "A placebo effect, perhaps? Of course—it must be. Well, they should be perfectly adequate in that case, as long as Elsa can retain reasonable control of her emotions."

"I should probably let the prime minister know, however," Hansen said. "At any rate, you can head back to the castle if you would prefer to wait where it's warmer."

Monger glanced up at the towering giantess, seating on the hangar floor. "I think we should remain here. Where Ginormica has some headroom."

"Uh, very well," Hansen said, looking up at Susan as well. "Of course. My apologies."

"That's all right," Susan said, giving him a quick smile. "And thanks, General."

"Monsters stick together," Cockroach added.

"Especially when we're frozen together," Link noted. "Can someone turn up the heat in here? My scales are icing over."

"Use the office," Hansen suggested, pointing to a door along the wall, where a row of windows looked out into the main hangar. "I must head back, I'm afraid."

"Thanks, Captain," Monger said. "Right, Link, get yer keister in there and turn up the heat. Cockroach, you better join him. Your antennae are turning blue."

"Actually, I'd prefer to remain outside here, with Susan," Cockroach said.

Link raised an eyebrow, and Link gave the slim scientist a nudge which nearly sent him reeling.

"Oh? You and Giny? You sly dog, you!"

"It's nothing like that," Cockroach said, drawing himself up to his full six feet of height. "I simply wish to discuss a few issues with Susan. Now shoo! Scat! Vamoose, as you Americans like to say!"

"Yeah, a few issues," Link said, grinning back at them as he followed Monger and Bob into the office.

Susan could see them through the window as Link immediately turned the heater on full. She stretched, her hands narrowly missing smashing through an overhead gantry, then lay down on her side to get nearer to Cockroach's level. "What is it, Doc?"

"Er, how well did you get to know the princess?" he asked, moving close to her titanic face.

"Anna? Oh, you mean Elsa?"

"Actually, both, I suppose," Cockroach admitted.

Susan gave a sort of half shrug. "I wouldn't say that much. Anna was more talkative, I guess. But I spent more time alone with Elsa."

"Would you be able to persuade Anna to listen to me? Or talk to her yourself? It's very important."

Susan frowned. "What's the problem?"

"I've been, er… well, trying to find out a few things," Cockroach said slowly.

"Like you always do," Susan commented with a smile. "And?"

"And… I found that the prime minister is going to sell Arendelle's North Sea oil extraction rights to a British company called Weselton Oil. They'll get millions—billions—from oil sales, and the duke gets a huge cut, but Arendelle won't see a single cent."

Susan's huge eyes opened wide. "Wait… you mean…?"

Cockroach nodded. "The country will be ruined. Not that the duke will care. I overheard him talking about buying an estate in Bermuda."

"The little shit! Son of a bitch! How dare he! Wait, how can he? Won't Elsa stop—oh, she can't. She's not queen any more. Well, what about Anna? Why doesn't she put a stop to this?"

"She's not nearly as trained in political and governance as her sister," Cockroach said. "And she's still too young—remember, by law Arendelle is ruled by a regent until the monarch is twenty-one. So the duke is actually legally in charge of everything for the moment."

"Son of a bitch…" Susan breathed again.

"There's another problem," Cockroach told her. "The duke has kept Anna in isolation. No one is allowed to see her. I, er, circumvented those restrictions—it's useful being able to crawl on the ceiling at times—but when I tried to suggest that her uncle was selling her country out, she… well, refused to listen to me. Not that I blame her, I suppose. He's the closest family the sisters have since the tragic death of their parents."

"So you want me to try to talk to Anna?"

Cockroach nodded. "Maybe as you know her better, and… maybe being a girl would make her more likely to listen…?" he finished slowly, looking up at Susan hopefully.

She pursed her lips, thinking. "Actually, I think going through Elsa might be a better idea. She struck me as being very rational. Too rational, if anything. If we can persuade her that her uncle's selling them out, then she can talk to her sister."

"She may not be allowed to see her," Cockroach noted.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure she can," she said, giving him a lopsided smile. "When should we go?"

"It will have to be done now," Cockroach told her. "Once she leaves, there's no one left who can stop the duke."

"No problem," Susan said, sitting up. Then she paused. "Uh, except one. Where is she?"

* * *

Elsa lay on the narrow bed, and sighed. She was in a small round chamber in an ancient medieval part of the castle. The walls were a metre thick, and the only light came from a few narrow barred windows, glassless, giving her a view of the frozen fjord, but not much else.

It was a chamber she was very familiar with. As a child, she had often been confined here when her powers became hard to control. She would be taken here, where the thick stone walls could withstand her snow and ice better than the elaborately painted wooden walls of the castle, and where she could allow her powers to vent themselves out the windows harmlessly into the fjord. Normally it only took a few minutes, and she hadn't had to be confined here for years. Now, of course… it was no longer a matter of minutes. She had finally been revealed for what she was: the dreaded Snow Queen of legend, a monster who ruined nations. Ruined her nation….

She glanced down at her hands, which were encased in cumbersome metal gauntlets, festooned with wires and lights. Her uncle had told her that the mutant American scientist had created them as a way to counteract her curse, to enable them to transport her to the United States safely. She had no idea how they worked, but so far they seemed to be doing the trick. Almost no snow had fallen since she had put them on. One side effect, however, was that her hands were unpleasantly warm. It was also very hard to scratch her nose.

The princess sighed again. In a few hours she would be on her way, and perhaps her country could be saved. If there was anything left underneath her snow and ice to save, she thought, staring up at the interlocking wooden beams that disappeared into the darkness of the roof.

Then she heard a clinking a moment before a key was inserted in the lock, and the thick metal door swung inwards.

"Uncle Mustela?" Elsa gasped, and sat up quickly as the duke entered. He smiled at her.

"Preparations are just about ready," he said. "The American plane landed a few minutes ago."

"The snow has stopped," she noted. "I suppose that mad scientist did create something useful. A bit more effective than those gloves you always made me wear."

"Well, actually, it appears that they don't actually work," Ramberg told her. "You're just wearing tin boxes on your hands. So no more effective than your old gloves, it would seem."

"Not… real?" Elsa gasped, holding her hands up. She could almost feel the ice starting to form. "No, no, they are real, they work, they work," she chanted to herself under her breath. The gloves had worked—these would work even better. They were science, and science always worked. Always.

Except when it failed to explain her curse….

There was a quick knock on the door, and it opened, revealing a nervous young man.

"Your Grace? Pardon me, sir, but it's urgent!"

The duke turned, and motioned to the messenger. "Over here. We shouldn't disturb the princess."

But Elsa wasn't paying attention anyway. She was staring out of the window over the fjord, up at the mountains soaring high on the far side. "I am the Snow Queen," she whispered to herself. "I am in control of my snow. It does not control me. I control it, I conceal it. I do not feel the worry, the fear…."

"Hi…highness…" the duke croaked.

Turning, her heart skipped a beat at the expression of utter despair on his face. "Uncle Mustela…? What is it? What's happened?"

"I… it's…" the duke stammered. He swallowed, and took a deep breath. "It's your sister," he got out. "She's… there's been an accident."

"An… accident?" Elsa whispered, barely able to speak. "What happened? Is she all right?"

"We… we had to evacuate her, just to keep her safe while, er, while you are still in the kingdom," he said slowly, not meeting her eyes. "We couldn't risk you harming her. But… her helicopter, ah, got caught in the snow storm you caused. Blown… blown into the side of a mountain." He paused, looking directly at her. "I'm afraid… she's… she's dead. Please, don't blame yourself! You couldn't have known! It's not your fault!" he added quickly.

Elsa heard him as if at the bottom of a deep well. A roaring sound echoed in her ears, building up and up and up, a wordless scream of utter despair that exploded out of her.

The duke stepped back. "Elsa? Elsa!"

"Get! Out!" she shrieked, doubling over, gripping her palms so tightly inside the gauntlets that her nails drew blood. "Please! You have to get out of here! It's not safe! I can't… I can't… STOP!"

The duke fled, slamming the door as Elsa's agonizing wailing reached a crescendo, pouring out a lifetime of pain. All she could think of was her sister, lying dead in the snow. Her snow. Her… snow. She had killed her sister. Her poor, sweet sister, who she had spent a lifetime shutting out, forcing away—until she had forced her away to her death.

The steel gauntlets split, shattering as her ice escaped its prison, free once more to ruin everything she loved. The princess sank to the floor, sobbing, as the ice grew, covering her completely, and then started spreading across the chamber, while a hurricane of snow howled around her, bursting through the windows in all directions, carrying death and destruction as it screamed across the land.

* * *

With a tremendous bang, the hangar suddenly shook, as if a gigantic hand had smacked it. From outside, a low howling grew and grew, getting louder and higher in pitch as the metal walls vibrated.

"What's going on?" Susan asked, looking around nervously.

"Emergency stations!" Monger shouted, emerging from the office. "Batten down the hatches! Man the gunwales!"

"What? What are you on about?" Link asked, trailing behind.

"There's a blizzard coming the likes of which… well, I don't know, but it's big! Titanic! Ginormic! Ginormica!"

"Sir?" Susan asked, looking anxious.

"I'm guessing Elsa's pretty darn-tootin' angry! Have you any idea what's gone on with her? I thought she was okay with the idea of moving to America? Doesn't everyone want to?"

"Not everyone," Cockroach said firmly. "I, for one, was never given a choice. Susan, my dear, did Elsa give any indication when you with her that she was… er, about to lose control?"

Susan shook her head. "None. She was… I guess she accepted it. She knew she had to leave, to save her country. Before she destroyed it."

"Well, she's doing a pretty bang-up job of it right now!" Monger snapped. "All hell's broken loose! Hurricane-force winds, temperatures way below whatever freezing is in Celsius!"

"Zero," Cockroach said, raising an eyebrow. "Really, it's pretty easy to remember."

"Should we evacuate?" Link asked, while Monger pointedly ignored Cockroach.

The general shook his head. "Not a chance. Monster Force One can't take off in this weather. Ginormica, if the building starts to collapse…."

"I know what to do," Susan said, glancing up at the shaking beams. "But I can't reach both the ceiling and the walls, so…."

"Hold it," the general said. He picked up his walkie-talkie. "Monger here. Oh, Mr Prime Minister? What is it? Yes, we know. Oh, you did? Wait, what? It crashed? She's…? Oh my god. My god. My… our… deepest condolences, sir. On behalf of the United States government, we are deeply sorry for your loss. What's that? Oh, yes, of course, we'll make arrangements to remove Her Highness immediately. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And… once more, my deepest condolences."

Monger switched off his walkie-talkie and looked over at the others, his face ashen.

"What is it, General?" Susan asked gently, her heart beating fast.

"It's… the Queen. Anna. She's… her helicopter… crashed in the storm. There were no survivors…."

Susan felt her mind go numb. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be true. Not Anna. "Oh… oh no, no, no, no…. No…." She let out a low moan, and buried her face in her hands, weeping.

"General," Cockroach said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Can you contact the Pentagon and confirm the crash site using US Army sources?"

Monger shrugged. "Probably. It wouldn't be hard to find. You think we should assist the Prime Minister in forming a search party?"

Cockroach shook his head. "No, I doubt he intends to send one out—you heard him. He said that the queen is dead. And with the princess about to leave for Area 52…. I wonder…."

"What are you getting at?" Monger snapped.

"Just…." Cockroach gnawed his lip. "I want to make sure that there are in fact no survivors," he said in a low voice.

"What the hell for?" Monger gasped.

"Shh! Not so loud!" Cockroach stage-whispered, looking up at the sobbing giantess. "I don't want to upset Susan more than she already is. However, I don't think we should take the word of the Prime Minister, either."

"But the US Army satellites won't be able to tell if anyone's alive," Monger hissed back. "Not in this weather."

"I have a few ideas about that," Cockroach said. "General, if I could set up a relay link using some of the parts in the hanger dumpster that I found, plus a smidgeon of uranium and a few other things I have in my pockets, then…."

Still talking in a low voice, he led the general into a back room. Susan watched them go dully, her mind a blank as the winds roared outside. It was too horrible to contemplate. Anna… dead? How must Elsa feel knowing that her sister was dead—killed by her own storm? Even though Elsa had seemed to reject her human side in favour of being the Snow Queen, Susan was sure that was just a bluff, a façade Elsa had erected to try and make her imprisonment easier. The separation from her family easier.

But now? She had already lost her parents—and now her sister, too? No wonder the storm was so bad, Susan thought as the hangar shook from the blasts of wind. She couldn't even begin to imagine the depth of despair Elsa must be feeling.

* * *

She was barely conscious of anything other than her emotions. Emotions that she had spent a lifetime trying to control, to suppress. Emotions that could harm others, destroy everything she held dear. But now it was too late. Now there was no need to control herself, now there was nothing left to protect. A lifetime of fear had been bottled up inside her, and now it was exploding, unchecked and devastating. Nothing mattered any more. There was nothing any more. Nothing but the snow, unending, unstoppable. The world was an infinite whiteness, and her an insignificant speck at the centre. A world where all hope, all emotion had been drained. All save one: utter misery. All she knew was that the last good thing in her life had been taken from her—no, had been destroyed by her. All her life she had lived in fear, fear of what others would do, fear of harming those she loved. And now she had. Now the person she most loved in the whole world was dead because of her. Because of what she was. The Snow Queen. A monster….

Elsa sat slumped on the floor, gazing out through the narrow window over the frozen ford with unseeing eyes. The blank whiteness outside was merely a continuation of the blankness inside her. Her rage and anger and self-loathing had been spent, and now there was only an aching sense of loss, of utter despair. She had thought that the death of her parents was the worst pain she could ever know. But the death of her little sister, her sweet, innocent little sister, killed in a blizzard of her own making: that was an agony unlike anything she could have imagined. She was oblivious to the outside world. It was a world without her sister, so it was meaningless to her. Nothing could penetrate her blank, white hell.

The chamber gradually filled up with ice, encasing the grief-stricken princess, embracing Elsa in its cold, unyielding grip. Cocooning the Snow Queen in its frozen heart.

* * *

"Susan! She's alive!"

The giantess gasped. "What? You're sure?"

Cockroach nodded happily, his antennae flying. "A few minor alterations to the image processing algorithms of a top-secret low-orbit spy satellite, and we found her."

"Where is she?"

"The chopper came down near Himmeltindan, the highest peak in Vestvågøya," Monger told her. "It's over three thousand feet tall, but she's only half-way up it."

"So we're going to rescue her?"

"Of course," Monger said. "Or rather, you're going to rescue her."

Susan nodded, her face serious. "No problem, General. I can do it."

"It's… rather windy out there," Cockroach added with considerable understatement, glancing up as the hanger shuddered and shook. "Are you sure you'll be all right?"

"I'll manage." She paused. "Uh, where is Himmel-whatever? Himmeldingdong?"

"Himmeltindan," Cockroach said. "Northwest coast of Vestvågøya, about twenty miles away from Reine."

"Uh, I might not be able to able to find it, not in this weather," Susan admitted.

"You'll need a guide, Ginormica," Monger told her. "What about that bloke who took you and the queen to the North Mountain to find Elsa?"

"Huh? What about Elsa?" Bob asked, looking around as if he expected to find her under a tarp somewhere.

"Great idea, Bob!" Susan said. "I'll ask Elsa! She'll be so glad to hear her sister's alive!"

"We don't even know where she is," Monger reminded her.

"Ask the Snow Queen for help? That is not a good idea right now," Link added, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Bob said. "She's the epic centre of this storm!"

"You mean epicentre," Cockroach told him. He rubbed his chin, one eyebrow raised. "Actually, that is a good point, Bob. If Elsa is indeed generating this storm, it stands to reason that it is centred on her location. Just follow the wind—keep heading into the wind. That's where she'll be. At the heart of the storm."

"Of course!" Susan exclaimed. "I think I know where she must be! Elsa told me that one of the towers at the castle was modified to be ice-proof—it was a place she could go when she felt her powers getting out of control."

"I don't suppose she mentioned which tower?" Cockroach asked.

Susan shook her head again. "But she did mention it had a view of the fjord and the mountains." I'm sure I'll find her easily."

"You sure you can manage this wind?" Link asked.

Susan nodded. "No probs. I should hurry!"

"Yes, because you'll need to get to Anna before she freezes," Monger noted. "Based on when the duke contacted me, the chopper would have crashed about half an hour ago, and she can't survive much longer out there."

"Oh my god, yes!" Susan gasped, jumping to her feet. "No time to lose! I'm out of here!"

"Remember, Himmeltindan!" Cockroach called.

"Gotcha, Himmeltindan!" Susan said.

"We're racing against time here, Ginormica," Monger added. "Don't delay a minute longer than you have to. And… don't let anyone delay you, either."

Susan nodded, understanding his meaning. She headed to the wide hangar door and lifted it up the bare minimum, quickly rolling beneath it then jumping to her feet. A blast of frigid air nearly knocked her sideways, and she grabbed the roof for balance. Trying to stay upright on the icy ground, she quickly made her way out of the airport area, and to the main road. Despite the fact it was summer, the sky was dark, the sun completely shut out by thick black clouds, heavy and pendulous, from which lightning continually crackled, the thunder shaking the ground. The air was filled with shards of ice, blown sideways by the howling gale. Streetlights and trees were swaying, and she saw one large elm uprooted, crashing onto a truck. Several of the vehicles that had been parked along the road were sliding across the ice, pushed by the storm.

Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly spotted something huge flying towards her. Acting on instinct, she quickly swatted the object away. It crashed into an empty house, and she realised it was the trailer from a truck, just picked up and blown by the Snow Queen's storm as if it were no more than an empty cardboard box. She could see loose shingles flying, and a brick chimney crumbled as a particularly savage blast struck. There was no time to lose: the buildings of Reine would never survive a storm like this for long. With her free hand shading her eyes from the worst of it, Susan made her way through the hellish landscape as quickly as she could. At least, she thought, she didn't have to look where she was going, as the wind meant it was easy to keep heading the right way—if hard to actually make progress.

She turned a corner, and then with a cry, she suddenly found her legs swept out from under her as a large truck, skidding along the icy road, struck her. She crashed heavily, knocking over a lamp post and sliding along the road until she slammed into a stone building, rocking it. Tiles rained down on her head, along with a large chunk of snow.

Susan swore under her breath, shaking the snow off her and feeling the wall behind her to make sure it hadn't broken under the force of her impact. Bracing herself, she got to her feet again, and risked a quick glance up into the gale, holding her hand up to try and cut out the driving snow and ice. She could just make out the castle, its outlines blurred under the thick layer of snow that blanketed it. Elsa had told her the tower overlooked the fjord. That meant it must be on the seaward side of the castle, Susan realized. Going straight through the front gates—or over them, rather—would attract far too much attention, even in this weather. She was sure she could take out any resistance the palace guards could offer, but perhaps she didn't have to. After all, the fjord was frozen. The question was, would it take her nearly twelve ton weight?

"Only one way to find out," Susan muttered to herself as she ventured out across the square to the docks. It was actually hard to see where the land became the sea, as the snow drifts were piled so high they blurred into each other. But Susan felt herself going down a bit, and then heard a low rumbling creak underfoot. Gingerly putting her entire weight on that foot, ready to jump back if she heard a crack, she slowly let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the thick ice held her.

She could just make out the two smaller towers that marked the entrance to the port. Using those as a guide, she slowly made her way out onto the ice. With nothing to brace against, and nothing to block the howling gale and driving snow, it was slow going—Susan sometimes felt herself sliding on the ice, pushed by the tremendous power of the storm.

And then it just stopped.

The wind instantly died down, and the air was filled with tiny, hovering flakes of ice and snow, just hanging in the stillness. It was as if the very air had been frozen. Immensely relieved to finally be in the eye of the storm, Susan stood upright, and scanned the area. Now that the storm had stopped, she no longer had a direction to head. But it was clear which tower was the right one: all the ice on the buildings was pointing away from the epicentre of the storm, leading her to the Snow Queen like a myriad frozen arrows. Elsa's tower was at the back of the castle, twice as tall and thick as the other towers, ringed with solid crenellations.

Susan made her way across the frozen fjord, hoping she wouldn't be noticed too soon—while she didn't imagine for a minute that the duke would dare try to attack her, he might try to move Elsa, and then she'd never find the princess. Moving as fast as she could, she skidded on the ice, grabbing at the wall to support her. Several large stones crumbled down under her hand as she levered herself upright, breathing heavily from the adrenalin rush.

A few more steps took her to the tower, on a rocky outcropping. There were almost no windows in the thick stone wall—just a few arrow slits piercing it. But just above her head level, nested in the crenellations, was a smaller tower, crowned with a pointed wooden roof, plated in green copper like the rest of the towers. This appeared to have windows. But she couldn't see inside. She could, however, see a faint blue glow coming from it. This would be where the Snow Queen was, Susan was certain. Muttering a quick apology to the royal family, Susan swung a fist through the wooden roof of the adjacent curtain wall, clearing a flat area she could climbed on top of. That put the top tower at about chest height.

None of the windows were lit, aside from the mysterious blow glow, and she noticed they were barred, but not glazed. Susan leaned over and tried peering through one, but it was hard to make out anything inside. The air coming from inside was incredibly frigid, however; so cold that even with her alien-enhanced biology she couldn't stand it for more than a few seconds, and had to take a step or two back.

"Elsa?" Susan whispered, then louder when there was no answer. "Elsa! Are you in there?"

The only response was silence. Susan glanced up at the sky, so grey it was almost black. Anna did not have much time left. She thought quickly. The windows were too small to get her hand in. Breaking down the wall would be easy, but risked injuring Elsa. How could she get in? Ah, of course, she thought with a smile.

Susan stood upright, and put her hands on both sides of the copper-covered roof. She pulled carefully, hearing groans and shrieks of metal as the beams snapped and the nails pulled out under her immense strength. Then she tossed the roof aside, letting it smash heavily through the ice into the fjord.

She peered inside, looking for Elsa. At first she couldn't see anyone. Then she realized that the room was filled with ice. She could make out Elsa's form inside, deep in its frozen heart. Susan's heart skipped—was… was Elsa dead? Was that why the storm had stopped? Could the Snow Queen be killed by her own creation?

There was no time to lose wondering, Susan told herself firmly. Elsa was either dead or alive, and there was only one way to find out. She pulled down part of the chamber wall, letting the stones tumble down into the fjord, and dragged the huge chunk of ice out.

* * *

Entombed in her ice, almost a part of it, she didn't even notice the huge blue eye staring in at her, the titanic face, the gesticulating hands. Even when the tower shook and groaned she remained where she was, lost in her personal nightmares. Only when the ice around her suddenly cracked and smashed did Elsa realize she was no longer alone, as one immense hand snaked in and caught her up.

"Elsa! Highness! Are you all right?"

The giantess's deep, powerful voice cut into her consciousness, but it still took Elsa's shocked brain a few seconds to process what was going on. "Su…Susan! Stop! What are you doing? Put me down! I'm dangerous—I could hurt you!"

"I'm so sorry, Highness! I don't have a choice! We don't have much time—we have to get to Himmel…Himmeltrinn…. Oh bother, what was it?"

"Himmeltindan? Why?" Elsa gasped, trying not to look down as the giantess swiftly carried her away across the ice.

"Your sister! We have to save your sister!" Susan cried.

"Anna? But—she's...!" Hardly even daring to think about the slightest possibility, Elsa twisted around to look directly at Susan's face. Which was smiling at her, happy and excited. Hope flooded through Elsa; a sudden, joyous hope, though tinged with a horrible fear that she was hallucinating. "Wait…. Is Anna…?" She didn't even dare complete the question.

"She's alive—but we have to get to her fast!" Susan said. "She's out in the snow, hurt!"

Alive! That was the only word Elsa heard. Anna was alive! Anna was still alive! That was all that mattered, all that gave her hope. Her sister was still alive! Her heart soared, a wonderful warmth filling it. Then another word penetrated her mind, freezing her soul once more: Hurt. Anna was hurt, again. Again, her curse had caused pain for others. Again, her curse had made her a monster. She could never escape, never be free of what she was. She could feel the ice build up inside her, her heart freezing once again. The snow started falling again, harder and harder.

No. She would not retreat into self-pity and fear. Not again. Her powers were destructive, but also creative. Her powers did not make her a monster. They did not make her a danger, any more than the giantess holding her so carefully was a danger. If Susan could control her fears of hurting others, so could she. They were both capable of hurting or even killing someone with a careless gesture, a momentary lapse of concentration, of self-control. Yet Susan had accepted who she was; rejoiced in it. And by accepting it, she controlled it. Rather than being a part of her that she tried to hide away, ignore, she lived with it, welcomed it. And controlled it. That, Elsa realized, was the secret to controlling her fear, her power—not just revelling in it, as the Snow Queen, but accepting it, as Elsa. Just as Susan was both the giantess Ginormica, and the human Susan. She was both, and one.

She took a deep breath, and the snow stopped falling. "What happened?"

"I'm not that clear on the details," Susan admitted, looking down at the princess she was carefully holding. "But she was being evacuated to Norway in a chopper, and… er, it crashed. For… some reason. Uh, mechanical failure, I think the duke said…."

"I rather doubt he said that," Elsa noted, curling her lip.

"Well, he didn't really go into detail," Susan admitted. "He just told us your sister was dead."

"And I gather you didn't entirely believe him?"

"Well, you know… we… uh, well, Doc was…. I'm sorry, Highness, but Doc was suspicious of your uncle."

There was a brief silence. Then Elsa spoke. "Interesting. What exactly made him think that?"

Susan swallowed. "Uh, er, Doc sort of overheard him, uh, say he was ready to sign a deal to… well, to sign away all of Arendelle's North Sea Oil reserves. And keep the money himself."

"I knew it. That little weasel," Elsa breathed. "That lying little weasel. I told him several times to break off all negotiations. I told him I would never sign anything with Weselton Oil. And now he assures you my sister is dead. More lies."

"Uh, maybe he just didn't know," Susan suggested. "I mean, the US Army has better equipment, I guess…. I mean, he is her uncle, right? He wouldn't lie about his own niece, surely?"

"Ah, Susan, I'm sure in your world uncles are all sweetness and light. Avuncular, I think, is the English term."

"Uh, maybe. I don't know what that means," Susan admitted.

"Never mind. But in my world, in the world of political power, uncles have a fairly well deserved reputation." Elsa paused, and gave a bitter laugh. "Especially in this winter of our discontent."

"Huh?"

"Haven't you heard that quote from Shakespeare? That was Richard III. The kind who killed his two nephews."

Susan's eyes opened wide. "Wait, really?"

"Well, probably. You see the sort of uncles we have to deal with in my line of work?" Elsa laughed softly, but quickly turned serious again. "Mustela has constantly sidelined me, and I don't doubt he's thrilled to have me declared unfit to rule. Anna would be far easier to control."

"Yeah, you might be right. Doc tried to tell her about her uncle, but… I guess she didn't want to listen to someone bad-mouthing her family."

"Anna's always been closer to him," Elsa noted. "She was only fifteen when our parents died, and he was the only family we had left."

"But you weren't as close?"

Elsa shook her head. "Turn down here," she said, pointing down a wide street. "No," she continued as Susan's long legs carried them rapidly down the road, kicking up clouds of loose snow. "I always knew he thought I wasn't fit to be queen. Because of… of what I am."

"Yeah, well, he's wrong," Susan said emphatically, carefully negotiating around some fallen trees.

"He… he called me a monster," Elsa said softly, remembering how it had hurt each time.

"Hey, that's a compliment!" Susan said with a quick laugh, jogging down the road at over fifty miles an hour. "But he's wrong. You're a hero. Giving up being queen to save your country? Giving up on having a life to save your sister? I don't know what being a queen means, I don't even know what being a sister means, but I do know what being… one of us means. Sure, you get to do amazing things, but… there's always a sacrifice." She looked down at the small pale princess in her hand, and smiled. "But it's totally worth it."

"I hope so," Elsa said, sighing. She looked around at the snow covering the hills, and bit her lower lip. "I'd sacrifice anything if I could save my country—and my sister. My poor, sweet sister… out there, in the frozen wastes…. Susan, we have to hurry!"

"Don't worry. I'm going as fast as I can," Susan told her, kicking her legs out of a snowdrift that came over her knees. She stumbled, quickly regaining her balance. "It's just hard to see where the road is at times."

Elsa glanced up at Susan, then back down at the road. "Can you let me ride on your shoulder?"

"Uh, are you sure? What if you fall?"

"I won't fall. But I might be able to help."

"Okay, if you want to…" Susan said, carefully lifting the princess up and letting her shift onto her shoulder. Elsa swiftly encased her feet in ice, affixing herself to the giantess.

Susan carefully turned her head, looking curiously at Elsa out of the corner of her eye. "What are you going to do?"

"As I told you on the mountain; no more fear. No more hiding. If I am the Snow Queen, I shall _be_ the Snow Queen."

Elsa raised her hands, and pointed them at the road. The snow covering it slowly rose up into the air, then gathered speed, fountaining high to either side, leaving the road clear.

Susan gasped. "That's… that's amazing!"

"I may not be able to melt it," Elsa said. "But I can control it. It is my servant, not my jailor. It will never hold me back again."

The Snow Queen held onto Susan's hair with one hand while the other remained pointed at the road. Susan moved forward, and the snow continued fountaining up on either side.

"Now run, Susan, as fast as you can. Take me to my sister. My snow shall not keep us apart. Not any longer."

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

Another much longer than intended gap between chapters. This is really slack of me. Mind you, the last section of this chapter in particular took a lot of reworking. Getting the last conversation working was really hard. I needed to have them discuss certain points while saving other points for later, for thematic reasons, and needed to have them not unnaturally avoid those certain points. I also had to avoid having Elsa be either too angry or too afraid. And have her embrace what she was and realize she can control the snow, but that's still a far cry from actually melting it.

Anyway, now that's out of the way, hopefully things should be smoother from here on.

It's hard to get a sense of scale of the castle, but I've done my best from the images available online in lieu of any actual blueprints. And I think that the tall thick tower at the back is indeed taller than Susan.

Incidentally, for those of you who haven't read my MVA Ginormica stories, Susan's weight here (more precisely, 11.8 tons) is the weight given in _The Art of Monsters vs. Aliens_ , so it's as official as anything.

Oh, and "avuncular" basically means kind and genial to the younger generation in the way an uncle should be. Richard III says that famous quote at the start of the play that ruined his reputation for centuries. Not that he was a saint or anything—far from it, as he's still the most likely candidate to have murdered his own nephews, the sons of Queen Elizabeth (wife of Edward IV—and a very interesting historical figure in her own right).

There aren't any other facts as such in this chapter, so let's get on with the next….


	11. Strike for Love

**Chapter 11 Strike for Love**

"She what!" Ramberg shouted.

"She kidnapped the princess, sir," the guard said, saluting nervously.

"How dare she! How dare that general order his giant monster to kidnap one of our subjects—our princess!" He glowered at the guard. "Why did no one stop her?"

"We… er, we… didn't see her."

The left side of the duke's mouth twitched. "You didn't see a fifteen-metre tall woman?"

The guard blanched. "It was… the storm… I mean, visibility was…. Er, she came from the fjord. And by the time we realized, uh, what she was doing… we couldn't stop her."

The duke hissed like a kettle reaching the boil, then became calm again. He carefully stroked his moustache, and smiled at the guard. "I'm sure you couldn't. Do you know where they have gone?"

"The giantess was last seen heading along Route E10 towards Flakstadoya, sir."

"Towards the—? I see. Thank you. Dismissed."

The guard saluted and left while Ramberg walked over to the window. The snow had stopped falling, but the sky was still heavily overcast, grey and featureless. He pulled out his phone.

"Agent Smith? I can assume there were in fact no survivors?"

"There couldn't be," Smith told him. "If they survived the crash, they'd be dead soon from cold and exposure."

"You know what's at stake here," the duke said. "We cannot risk that stupid little girl interfering with our plans. Do not assume. Know."

"You want us to—"

"I want you to make sure there are no survivors," the duke said. "The giantess is carrying a tracking device—can your people locate her?"

"No problem. We have contacts within the US military."

"Good. And Smith? Make sure your men get there before that American monster does. I don't want anyone to know about your involvement. Or mine."

"Don't worry. This will never be traced back to you. Weselton Oil has experience with this sort of thing. We're not amateurs. By this time tomorrow, the throne will be yours."

* * *

Anna realised she was lying on her back in a hollow, formed when she fell, and she could see the snow howling across just above her. Her left leg was throbbing painfully, but somehow she was still alive. Somehow, incredibly, the pilot had managed to ride out the sudden storm blast enough that they merely crash-landed rather than being blown straight into the side of the mountain. Somehow she had been thrown free, landing in the deep, soft snow. The snow that lay all around her, filling her vision with whiteness. The entire world was white—a vast, empty nothingness of pure whiteness, with her alone at the centre, an insignificant speck, a tiny spark of life adrift in the blank void, slowing flickering, growing dimmer and dimmer.

Her consciousness kept fading in and out, and it was getting hard to determine reality from hallucinations. One thing was crystal clear, however: the blast had been caused by her sister, the Snow Queen. Could her uncle possibly be right? Was this a final attempt on her life? Well, it looked as if this one would succeed. While she had never believed that the accident when they were children was anything more than a simple mistake, and even the avalanche was just an unfortunate side-effect, this current storm was another thing entirely. It was as if Elsa had deliberately summoned up a blizzard; as if her sister had truly become the merciless Snow Queen of myth and legend; her heart full of cold, deadly, ice.

In her mind's eye, or possibly a dream, Anna felt she could see the Snow Queen now, seated on a great throne of ice, in a huge hall that glittered and refracted the light, casting a thousand tiny rainbows across the room. Deep blue depths lay between the pillars, leading away into darkness. The Snow Queen rose, and with a sweeping gesture from her hand, conjured up a hideous creature of snow, five metres tall, with great spikes of ice stabbing from its body. Anna tried to run, but she couldn't—her feet were trapped in ice, and she was powerless to move, powerless to defend herself, as the huge creature approached, its arm raised to strike. She screamed.

* * *

"How far now?"

"Not long," Elsa said, blasting snow from the ground ahead of them. "Over the other side, that's Vestvågøya. And straight ahead, that mountain, that's Himmeltindan!"

"Great!" Susan glanced up, seeing a sharp-edged peak on the other side of the strait. She hurried along the road, then stopped after rounding a low headland. The road dipped, vanishing into a tunnel. "Oh. That's a problem."

"No, it's not," Elsa said. "Keep going."

"You want me to crawl through?" Susan asked. "I don't think I could fit."

"No. Keep going to the edge of the strait."

In a moment they were at a small cluster of houses along the shore, facing a narrow strait, its cold grey waters still unfrozen but dotted with large chunks of sea ice. Beyond soared several peaks, stabbing almost directly out of the sea, with the highest a little further back, its summit shrouded by black clouds.

"I suppose I could swim across," Susan said, somewhat dubiously. "If I had to."

"Too cold," Elsa stated. "I think this is where I need to go alone."

"How?" Susan asked, raising her eyebrows.

Elsa shattered the ice anchoring her to Susan's shoulder. "Let me down."

"Uh, okay, if you want." Susan reached up a hand and let the princess scramble on, then lowered her gently to the ground. Elsa strode to the edge of the water, paused for a moment, then raised both arms. A breeze caught her ice train, rippling it gently, then more strongly. A sudden burst of light shone forth from Elsa's hands, which sent forth a great blast of ice across the water. It stretched out towards the other island, and Susan braced herself as gusts of wind howled across the land. Elsa's dress billowed, her train streaming out, the edges continually ripping and being reformed. Then the Snow Queen raised her arms higher, fresh blasts of ice streaking out, and the ice rose, arching, forming a gently curving bridge of pure, dark ice that rose above the dark sea, growing longer and longer, supported by slim pillars of ice.

"That's… that's amazing!" Susan gasped. "Come on, let's go!" She took a step towards the bridge, but Elsa held up her hand.

"I'm afraid I'll have to go alone—the bridge won't support your weight."

"Oh. Oh yeah, sorry," Susan said. She looked down at the small, slim queen, and was acutely reminded of her immense size. There were some things she just could not do. She could not follow Elsa, could not help her rescue her sister. She could not cross that beautiful, elegant bridge without destroying it. She was very good at destroying things, she thought with a sigh.

She shook her head. This wasn't the time to start feeling sorry for herself. She might not be able to cross the bridge, but she had saved the world from alien invasion, after all. Then she heard something, up in the sky. "Hey, do you hear that?" she asked, cocking her head to try and find out where the noise was coming from.

"I don't hear anything," Elsa replied, concentrating on finishing the bridge to her sister.

"Up in the sky," Susan replied. "It sounds like a… look! A helicopter!" She scanned the dull grey sky, then pointed up. "There! That's a rescue chopper, right? It's going to rescue Anna, right?"

Elsa looked up at the low grey clouds, and spotted a helicopter heading towards their position. It veered to the side, and her heart sank as she recognised the logo.

"I'm afraid not," she said. "That's a Weselton Oil helicopter. No idea what it's doing here. But I would be amazed if it was anything to do with rescuing my sister."

Susan shook her head in disbelief. "You really think your uncle wouldn't even try?"

For a brief moment, Elsa remembered her uncle as he used to be, when his brother—her father—was still alive. Even then he had been fairly forbidding, even when Elsa grew taller than him. But after her father's death, she had seen another side of him entirely. All pretence at being the kindly uncle had been summarily dropped.

"No. He wants us out of the way."

"You think he's going to—? He wouldn't! Not his own niece!"

"I hope not. But I'm not so sure about the oil company," Elsa said, her face set. "And I wouldn't trust my beloved uncle any further than I could throw him, either."

"Looks like it's going to be a race between you and the chopper, then," Susan commented. "Go, Elsa, and hurry! Can you make it in time?"

"Don't worry—the mountain's just over the other side—my sister's just over there."

"What about climbing the mountain?" Susan asked, glancing over at its steep slopes.

"I got up North Peak by myself. I'll manage this easily."

"Great! Hurry, Elsa. Just in case that chopper is actually going for your sister…."

"It'll never reach her, that I promise," Elsa said grimly. She gave the giantess a quick smile, then started running across the bridge.

Suddenly the ice erupted in front of her, shards spraying into the air as a sharp staccato rattle came from somewhere above her. The central part of the bridge collapsed, falling into the sea, and Elsa barely kept herself from doing the same. Scrambling to her feet, she was almost immediately thrown again as another staccato burst exploded more of the ice. Looking up, she could see the helicopter, diving down out of the low grey clouds and heading straight towards her.

"Elsa!" Susan shouted. "Get out of there!"

The princess pulled herself up again and ran, back towards the giantess, as the ice bridge was ripped up behind her by the helicopter's guns. She was barely conscious of where she was going—her mind was a white storm of fear, unable to think of anything but to flee, to run as far and fast as she could. She was almost at the end—the giantess was stretching out a hand. Then she stumbled again, rolling, the helicopter swinging around, trying to cut her off, swooping in for the kill. Her eyes screwed shut, she raised her arms in a futile gesture of protection—and then there was a blinding flash, a brief scream, an engine racing to its limit, a massive thud, and then… silence.

Or near silence. She could hear the low creaking of cold ice, shifting under its own weight. Elsa slowly opened her eyes. She was surrounded by massive spikes of ice, towering up past her vision. She didn't dare look up: she knew what that sound meant. It was the wolves all over again—in her blind fear and panic, she had unleashed her full power. But this time, it was humans she was aiming at….

* * *

Anna gasped, her leg sending a fresh stabbing wave of pain through her. She was still alive—the pain was an acute reminder of that. If she was still alive, there was still hope. Anna took a deep breath, and forced her eyes open. "Don't be… be weak," she stammered through frozen lips. Slowly, fighting a desperate need to just lie down and sleep, she levered herself to a semi-sitting position. A dozen or so metres away was the helicopter, sticking out of the snow. Where was the pilot? Was he still alive? "He…e…eelp…" she moaned, then more strongly, "Help!" She brought up a cold hand and rubbed her mouth. She could barely feel her hand, or her lips. "Help!" she shouted, then again. There was no answer. There was nothing but total, utter silence.

Anna could feel herself weeping. She was going to die out here, in the cold snow, alone. She had always hated being alone. She had been alone ever since she was eight, after Elsa had no longer been interested in playing with her. A void she had quickly filled with other friends, while she spent as much time as possible away from the cold, lonely castle. Away from her cold, lonely sister. Elsa loved being alone, refusing every invitation, every chance to go out and have fun. So eventually she had stopped bothering to even ask her.

And now she would die alone. Apart from everyone, even her sister. That, more than anything, seemed strange, unnatural. All her life, Elsa had always been there. No matter how many nights she spent partying, no matter how long she spent overseas lying in the sun, living the life of a playgirl princess, Elsa would always be waiting for her, always be waiting at home. Like a faithful dog. But now, even if she survived, Elsa was going to leave, to live far away in that American base…. For the first time in her life, her sister would not be there for her.

In the same way, Anna suddenly realised, that she had never been there for her sister…. It served her right, she thought with a long, slow sigh. She had spent half a lifetime trying to avoid her sister, so now they would be parted forever, and she would die up here, her grave her sister's snow. She had a sudden vision of Elsa finding her frozen body, preserving it, in eternal sleep deep within the Snow Queen's castle. She could see it now: a towering edifice of ice, reaching higher than any mountain. And at its heart, two sisters, together forever.

It had been so long since they were together, she thought. So long. She still remembered playing with her sister, playing in the winter snow. Shouts and fun and laughter, sledding and snowballs fights. Then a blinding pain shot through her head, and she could feel herself falling, down and down, into an endless pit. She got a glimpse of her sister, but for some reason, Elsa was just a child. A child with, she saw, an expression of pure horror and despair on her face. She heard a shriek, distorted, echoing. A cry of pain, of fear… of guilt beyond imagining.

Then her world exploded, spinning, twisting. She jolted, blinking, and realised she was awake. At least, she thought she was awake. The wind was howling, driving snow before it. Strangely enough, she could also see the stars through the snow. Part of her, a very dim, remote part, wondered how she could be seeing stars in the middle of summer. They shone, twinkling as the driving snowflakes occluded them, and seemed to be growing brighter.

Anna realised she was looking at candles. It was her birthday, with a cake, and presents. But for some reason, she couldn't see any of her friends. Even her parents weren't there. She was utterly alone. And it wasn't even her room. The walls were a different colour, and there were so many more books. She glanced down, and realised her hands were encased in long white gloves. And the glass of fruit juice by her plate was frozen over.

Then she was walking along one of the corridors in the castle. She passed by her bedroom, but for some reason she didn't go in. She simply glanced at it, listening sadly to the music and sound of laughter that percolated through the thick wood for a few seconds, before carrying on walking in silence, weeping. She turned a corner, and somehow felt as if years had passed. She could see herself, reflected in a mirror at the end of the corridor. No, not a mirror—she was looking at herself, dressed in one of her favourite Chanel outfits, chatting gaily on the phone. She saw herself glance up, then utterly ignore her as she passed on by, talking to one of her many friends about an upcoming visit to the French Riviera. Then she was standing, silent and unmoving, outside her bedroom door. Somehow, she knew the room on the other side was empty, would be empty for weeks to come, and a great pang of loneliness filled her.

She stared down at the telegram in her hands, noticing in passing that once again she was wearing gloves for some reason. The telegram's short, blunt message about her parents was burned into her brain, a cold fire that would never die. A cold fire that burned inside her heart, turning it to frozen ash. She felt she could even see the ash all around her, floating in the air, as if time itself had frozen, suspended in perfect stillness. The same stillness that had settled around her heart.

A horrible sense of loss overwhelmed her. A sadness so deep, so vast, it seemed like there could never be anything else; that there never had been, nor ever could be. She knew she had to be there to support her sister, to mourn her parents, but… she dare not risk it. She would only hurt them. Because she was…

…a monster. Anna's eyes flew open, and she drew a long, ragged breath. It seemed like the first breath she had drawn since she had crashed.

A monster….

Alone….

"Oh, Elsa…" she sobbed, her tears freezing to her face. "I'm so sorry…."

* * *

"Elsa? Elsa!"

She slowly lifted her head, turning to face the giantess. What would Susan think of her now, having killed two men? Then she blinked, and rubbed her eyes. With just one hand, the giantess was holding the helicopter, which was missing its rotors, by the tail boom. The two men inside it had nearly fallen out, and were hanging on to the skids for dear life.

"What shall I do with this?" Susan asked, her mouth in a half-smirk, lifting the helicopter up higher. The men screamed and cursed at her, and one nearly lost his grip.

"The… the helicopter?" Elsa was stunned. The helicopter was a good twelve metres long, and must have weighed at least a tonne, and Susan was just holding it as casually as if it was a bunch of flowers. "What happened?"

"It was shooting at you. Only you shot a blast of ice at it—hit the rotors, sheered them clean off. And I jumped up to grab it before it hit the ground."

"You jumped?" Elsa suddenly realised what the thud must have been. "H…how high?"

"I have really, really strong legs," Susan said with a grin. "Strong arms, too, I guess. Girl's got some serious air. So, what shall we do with these two?"

"Keep an eye on them for now. I have to go rescue my sister."

"Of course," Susan said. "Hurry!"

Elsa nodded. She raised her hands, and quickly recreated her bridge. Time was of the essence—she didn't wait for it to finish forming, but started across it as soon as it was a few metres long. It extended as she ran, flowing out from her with the speed and smoothness of thought.

After a few steps, she almost found herself skidding, but realised that she was actually gliding, skimming along the slick surface, propelled by her own snow pushing her along. Except it was both pushing and pulling, swirling around her, not overly fast yet somehow powerful enough to send her sweeping over the ice bridge. Her ice dress lengthened, growing and melding with the ice of the bridge, lifting her up, higher and higher. It was like the ice and her clothing and the bridge were all one, all connected and propelling her forwards, sweeping up and then down behind her, as if she was surfing on a wave of ice.

Almost before she knew it, she was at the end. Yet her feet did not even touch the snowy ground; the wave of ice, now blending with snow, carried her up the mountainside. She no longer even needed to consciously think to command her snow: it did what it needed to, smoothly, powerfully; as much under the control of her will as her own body. Carrying her up the mountain, the centre of her own snowstorm, she was flying through the air as freely as a single snowflake.

* * *

Anna moaned. Was she still alive? She couldn't feel her arms or legs. She was barely aware of her body, in fact. She was just a disembodied consciousness, lying still amidst the snow drifts. She was very tired, and the snow was wonderfully soft and warm. Perhaps she should just go to sleep. _To sleep, perchance to dream_ , as her English mother often used to say. Anna could see her now, in her mind's eye. But hazy, indistinct. Auburn hair, shining in the light. A gentle smile, deep blue-green eyes, hands soft and gentle. She almost felt she could hear her mother singing to her, a calming lullaby. Or was it just the wind? The noise grew louder, sounding like a storm approaching. Yet the storm was calling to her, calling her name again and again, a scream that rose above the howling wind. Through her half-closed eyes and frozen eyelashes she could see a white figure suspended in the air, surrounded by a bright iridescent glow that shone like the aurora in midwinter.

The figure grew larger and closer, wreathed in stars that twinkled and sparkled. It was flying, great white wings extending out from it, and a long robe trailing down, fading into the snow in a cloud of ice. By now it was close enough for Anna to make out long white-blonde hair, streaming behind and blending with the snow and the stars. Surely it wasn't an angel? Angels didn't exist—or did they? It must be—what else could it be? Had it come to take her away? To rejoin her parents, wherever they might be? It seemed impossible, and yet… there it was. Coming ever nearer, faster and faster.

And it could mean only thing. Her life was over. Strangely, she felt no sadness at the thought, only an immense calm, a feeling of pure peace and tranquillity. Anna's final thought before she gave up the struggle to live was a brief puzzlement as to why the angel seemed to look so very much like her sister.

"Anna! Anna!"

Elsa cried out in horror as she dropped down to the small, huddled figure almost buried by the snow. She brushed some snow off her sister's pale face, hoping against hope that she was not too late, that the unthinkable had not happened. She wrapped her arms around the other girl's cold, stiff body, lifting her up out of the snow, cradling her on her lap. Anna's lips were blue, her eyes staring, sightless behind frozen lashes.

Terror beyond anything she could have imagined gripped Elsa. The very air seemed to freeze, but she could feel her own heart thumping in her chest, as if it was the only thing alive in the entire world. She hugged her sister to her chest as a wordless lament, soft and low, escaped her. Her world had ended. Nothing else mattered but the frozen body in her arms. Frozen by her snow, her curse. A curse which had now claimed the one good thing left in her life.

"Anna, Anna," she whispered, brushing her lips against her sister's cold forehead. "Please, no… no…. Oh, Anna! I'm so sorry!" Elsa cried, tears running down her cheeks. She gently brushed her fingers over Anna's face, caressing her, touching her as she had not touched another human being for more than half her life. She stroked Anna's hair, tracing the white streak she had caused all those years ago, back when the two sisters spent each moment together, happy and carefree.

"Anna, Oh, Anna…. Please…. Oh, Anna…. Please… please, come back to me…. My darling sister, I'm so sorry. You can't leave me! You can't leave me alone! Not again! No, please!" She choked back a sob, gasping for breath. "Please, no…. Every time you left me, every time you went away to play with your friends, I cried myself to sleep because I was so lonely, because I missed you so much. Because I love you so. Please, stay with me… just this once? Please…."

A tiny figure almost lost amidst the snow, the young queen sat sobbing, cradling her sister, as she gave in to utter despair. There was nothing left to live for now. She would stay here, cradling her sister's body, and let the ice finally consume her, let herself become the inhuman Snow Queen of legend. Descending from Nordfjel with Susan, she had thought she had surrendered to what she truly was, but she had not truly allowed herself to become the Snow Queen—she had still been too jealous of her humanity to fully let it go.

But now, bereft of hope, perhaps it was time to finally, truly, accept what she was. Accept herself for the inhuman monster she was. At least that way, they could be together forever….

Her head was drooped over Anna's body, her eyes overflowing with hot tears, running down her cheeks and dripping onto her sister's skin, trickling over and melting through the thin layer of frost that covered it, leaving trails of pinkish skin.

"El… El… saaa…."

The Snow Queen froze. She stared at her sister, desperately hoping she had not imagined it, and terrified she might have. Then she saw Anna's eyelashes flutter, struggling against the ice that coated them.

"Anna! Anna! Wake up! I'm here! You're safe!" Elsa shrieked, gasping for breath, her heart pounding with joy beyond anything she could have imagined.

"Elsa…." Anna moaned again through almost frozen lips.

"Anna, you're alive…" Elsa whispered, stroking her sister's lips, seeing them change from blue to white to pink, feeling the ice respond to her touch, her power. She could feel it… she could control it. She truly was the queen of ice and snow, and she would not let it take her sister from her, or ruin her country. Her heart thumping, she moved her hand, controlling the ice, pulling it away from her sister, and bringing her back to life.

Anna's eyes slowly opened wide, gazing up at Elsa. Her lips, now fully pink once more, curled into a soft smile.

"Hey… You… took your time, sis. I missed you," Anna whispered.

Tears filled Elsa's eyes as she smiled back. "Not as much as I missed you. Not nearly as much…."

Anna's own eyes grew damp, and she bit her lip. "I know that, now," she said softly, reaching up to stroke her sister's cheek, wiping the tears away. "I'm so sorry, Elsa. All those years—all those times I left you alone. You won't ever have to be lonely again. And that's a promise…."

* * *

 **Knowtes**

Another huge delay. Sometimes I wonder if this story will ever be finished. I very much do want to finish it, of course. And there isn't much more to go now that Anna's been rescued. So don't worry, it will be. I honestly do like writing it. The reasons this chapter took so long were that I was on holiday for much of September, and got no time to write at all, I kept rearranging Anna's thoughts and feelings on the mountainside, and I wasn't sure at all how to handle the helicopter attack. I thought about removing it entirely many times, but then that would give Susan less to do. And I don't want to have her just as a hanger-on, an addendum to the sisters' story. The problem is, while both are indeed about accepting what they are, learning to live with their differences, she doesn't currently have the same emotional baggage that Elsa does, so while she can offer guidance and counsel to Elsa, there won't be the same sort of cathartic moment we get between Elsa and Anna. Oh well….

As to any factual notes… not really. I haven't referenced any particular facts as such, although the geography of the places I describe is accurate (thanks once more, Google Earth…). The helicopter dimensions and weight are based on a standard Bell 206. I've snuck in a minor reference to my Frozen one-shot, "For the First Time in Forever," basically as I just like the image. And it fits. At least I think it does.

Anyway, the main climax is now over, so there's not long to go now.

 **Posted 22 Oct 2017**


	12. The Great Thaw

**12\. The Great Thaw**

[ **Last time:** With Susan's help, Elsa and Anna were finally reunited, and, after having had a lot of time to think, Anna realised how lonely and sad Elsa's life must have been without her. Understanding each other better, the sisters are together at last, for the first time in this story.]

* * *

Susan felt something.

Warmth.

It was warm on the back of her neck. She turned, seeing the sun breaking through the clouds, which were lifting and parting even as she watched. In a few moments the sun was shining brightly down, and Susan was forced to avert her eyes. Then she noticed something even more amazing. The snow was melting. No, not melting, she realised as she watched. It was rising up, drifting gently up into the sky and then dissolving into nothingness, vanishing like dew in the morning sun.

"Way to go, Elsa!" Susan called, turning around as the green landscape of Arendelle was rapidly revealed. The snow was quickly retreating, the warmth of summer returning in an ever-expanding circle centred on Himmeltindan. In just a few minutes, it was as if the winter had never come. Grass was unbending, relieved of the weight of the snow, flowers were shaking free of their white prison, and trees once again covered the hillsides in green. Turning slowly, Susan breathed deeply, letting the warm summer air fill her massive lungs.

"Hey! Put us down! You crazy bitch!"

Startled, Susan realised she was still holding the helicopter, and smiled wryly to herself. There probably weren't many people who could hold up an entire helicopter by the tail and forget about it. Sometimes it did feel good to be strong. Especially now. She raised the helicopter up high enough so that the men dangling off it were at her eye level.

"What did you say?" she asked, her voice dangerously calm.

"Freak! Monster! Let us go!"

"Hmm. Good idea," Susan said, giving them an evil smile. She held the helicopter out horizontally with her right hand, and gave it a good shake. Screaming in abject terror, the two men fell out, dropping into her left hand. Susan tossed the helicopter aside, letting it crash noisily onto the grass, and plucked one of the men off her left hand. Holding one in each hand, she looked at them calmly. "I thought you wanted me to let you go? No?"

"You're going to pay for this!" one of them gasped, struggling in her iron grip.

"Oh no, it's you who's going to pay," Susan said in a low growl. "You're going to come and explain yourself to General Monger, I think. The United States Army doesn't take kindly to having its officers shot at. And I daresay the Arendelle Army takes an even dimmer view of having its rightful queen shot at."

"We don't answer to you or these crazy Vikings!" one man shot. "Now put us down!"

"You're mighty mouthy," Susan snarled. "Most people, when held thirty or forty feet off the ground by a huge giantess, would be a little more polite, I'm thinking."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't dare hurt us. If you killed us, Weselton Oil's senators in the States would have you put away for life, like the monster you are!"

"You just tried to kill the queen!" Susan shouted.

"No, we just tried to destroy her bridge," the man said. "We need to keep the shipping lanes free of ice. Part of Weselton Oil's corporate social responsibilities."

"You're lying," Susan snarled. "And you won't get away with it!"

"Oh, we will. Now put us down!"

"Fine," Susan said. She walked out to the edge of the sea, held out her arms, and opened her hands. The two men yelled in terror as they fell out, dropping into the water. As they struggled ashore, she picked up the damaged helicopter, and laid it upright beside them. "Get in," she ordered.

"No!" one of the men snarled, pulling out a pistol. "Back off, you crazy bitch!"

"Are you mad?" the other man gasped. "She'll kill us! Put that away, Steve!"

"Shut it, Joe. We have the right to defend ourselves," Steve snarled.

"And so do I," Susan snapped. Before Steve could react, she swiftly flicked his gun. He screamed in pain, the gun flying away.

"You broke my hand!" he shouted, hugging it to his chest with his other hand.

"Put some ice on it," Susan suggested. "Except there isn't any anymore. Too bad." She moved the helicopter a bit closer. "Now, get in!"

"Okay, okay," Joe said, holding his hands up. Glaring at the giantess, Steve followed. Susan pushed the doors shut, then bent two of the rotors down, ensuring that the doors could not be opened again.

"Now stay there, or else you'll make me mad. And you wouldn't like me when I'm mad." She picked up the helicopter and glared through the front window. "You _really_ wouldn't like me when I'm mad…."

"Ginormica! Come in!"

Susan gasped, grabbing at her communicator. "Sir?" she asked, perching on the helicopter. The metal groaned a bit at the unaccustomed stresses, but held.

"Ginormica, the weather's cleared—there's not a cloud in the sky. We're getting reports from all over Arendelle—the snow's vanishing!"

"I know!" Susan exclaimed. "The snow's just gone! It just suddenly all rose into the sky, and basically dissolved into nothing! Winter's gone—we've got blue skies! Green hills! It's summer again!"

"Excellent. What's the status with Elsa and Anna?"

Susan's face fell. "Unknown, sir."

"Why?"

"I couldn't cross the ice bridge," Susan said. Then she looked around, and smiled. "But now it's warmer, I can cross the strait."

"It's too wide, Ginormica. It's over half a mile to the other side."

"But if Anna's injured?"

"I've contacted Captain Hansen—he's sending a helicopter. Which reminds me: we tracked an unmarked helicopter to your location, but it's not on our scanners any more—have you seen it?"

"I'm sitting on it," Susan said with a grin. "And I've told the two men in it that if they try to run, I'll sit on them, too."

"Two men?"

"Sent to kill Anna, and Elsa too," Susan said grimly.

"Sent! Who sent—? No, don't answer that—this isn't a secure channel. There's nothing more you can do. Report back here immediately. If not sooner. In fact, better make it sooner."

"Uh, sir, if I can, I think I'd better wait here until Captain Hansen arrives," Susan said. "Just in case. You never know."

"Very well. But don't delay. Monger out."

"Uh, okay," Susan said as the connection went dead. She stood up again, and gazed over the strait at the mountains. She could see Himmeltinden easily, a little way past a lower mountain with a cliff-like northern face. Was Anna all right? How badly injured was she? The fact that the snow had vanished suggested that Anna wasn't too badly hurt, as otherwise Elsa's grief would have made the winter even worse, but Susan was still rather worried. She hoped Captain Hansen would arrive soon.

Gazing over at the mountains, stark against the cloudless blue sky, Susan suddenly noticed a small white cloud appear over one ridge. It didn't look like any cloud Susan had ever seen before, however. It was too small, almost solid, and… and it seemed to be skimming across the ground. It rapidly moved down the mountainside, then in a few moments had reached the coast. Then it started heading towards her, covering the half-mile strait in just a couple of minutes. As it neared, Susan could see that it was actually a gigantic wave of ice and snow, forming instantly and then melting away as it tailed off. And on top of it, glowing snow swirling around her and cradling her injured sister in her arms, was the Snow Queen.

Elsa came to a smooth halt near Susan and the ice slowly vanished, lowering her and Anna to the ground. Susan dropped to one knee.

"How's Anna?" she asked, looking over the redheaded princess, who Elsa was helping to a convenient rock.

"Fine," Anna called, easing herself down. "Just… rather a sore leg. Oh yes, very sore. Ouch."

"I don't think it's broken, however," Elsa said. "Susan, we have to get back to Reine immediately. My sister needs a doctor. And I need to deal with my uncle."

"General Monger told me Captain Hansen's sent a chopper with a doctor. They had it in the air as soon as the skies cleared."

"Elsa did that," Anna said happily. "It was amazing! After she got me warm again, she just stood up, held her arms out, and it was like some conductor at a symphony—she basically waved her arms and the snow vanished. Now, why couldn't you do that earlier?" she added cheekily.

"I didn't have you with me," Elsa told her with a smile. "And I didn't know who I really was, then." She paused, and let out a small sigh. "I'd spent so many years trying not be… to be me, so of course I couldn't control my snow—myself." She glanced up at the giantess. "Then I met someone who showed me it's okay to be different. It's okay to be what I am."

Susan blushed bright red. Then her large ears caught something. She stood, scanning the sky.

"What is it?" Elsa called up.

"Ah—there it is," Susan said. "There's a helicopter coming. Must be the captain."

"Hurry, Susan! Get his attention!" Elsa called. "He won't know Anna and I are here!"

"Good point," Susan admitted. She waved her arms, then put her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Captain Hansen! Over here! Over here! They're here!"

"Herregud!" Anna gasped, rubbing her ears. "Oh, that was loud!"

"Oh, sorry," Susan said, her hand at her mouth. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot how loud I can shout. Are you okay?"

"Fine," Anna said. "I should get my hearing back in a few days. Only joking," she added with a quick grin.

"Well, at least the captain heard you," Elsa added, pointing.

As the large purple helicopter coming swiftly towards them, Susan positioned herself between the helicopter and the two royal sisters, just in case it was another of Weselton Oil's. But as it came nearer, she caught sight of a familiar and reassuring figure waving at her.

"Hey, Giny!"

"Hey yourself, Linky," Susan called back, laughing as the green face of the fish-ape stuck out the open chopper door. He jumped out once the helicopter was about ten feet off the ground, and bounded over to the giantess.

"How're you doing, big girl? Oh, hey, the princesses! I mean, the queens!" he added, giving Elsa and Anna a wink and a quick salute.

"Oh, just one queen," Anna said. "Now that Elsa's back—you are going to be queen again, aren't you?"

Elsa pursed her lips. "Well… I was rather looking forward to doing some partying. Maybe a few overseas trips. Enjoy being a princess, for once. Catch up on all the things I missed. Yes, I think you can stay queen," she finished, looking as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

"Hey! No fair!" Anna protested. "You gotta be the queen! No way I'm going get stuck with all that boring ruling nonsense! I'd screw it all up!"

Elsa laughed. "Well, perhaps I'd better be queen. Though I'm going to insist you help," she added. "It's our kingdom, and I'm going to want—I'm going to need you at my side."

"Always," Anna said as Elsa embraced her, while the doctor and Captain Hansen hovered nearby.

Hansen coughed discreetly. "Majesty? Highness? I think we should be getting Que—Princess Anna to hospital."

"Ooh, yes, good idea," Anna said, grimacing in pain as the doctor started to gently probe her leg.

"It's not too bad, Highness," he told her. "Just a broken ankle."

"Just!" Anna shot.

"You were lucky you were lying in snow," the doctor added. "It kept your ankle elevated, and the cold would have helped minimize swelling and pain."

"It's not cold now," Anna said, grimacing. "And it's definitely starting to hurt more."

"Try this," Elsa said with a slight smirk. She made a quick motion with her fingers, and in a few seconds Anna found herself wearing an elegant boot of ice.

"Huh. Yeah, that doesn't hurt quite so much. Thanks."

"I'll travel with you to make sure it stays frozen," Elsa said. "Let's get going!"

"Just let me get into the chopper," Anna said, trying to stand up, but the doctor quickly stopped her.

Link gave her a deep bow. "May I?" he asked, holding out his hands.

"You may," Anna said with a smile, as she allowed him to carefully pick her up and carry her to the waiting helicopter. "You're still coming with me, right?" she asked her sister as Link carefully set her down on the helicopter's rear bench seat.

"Of course," Elsa told her. She glanced over at Susan, who smiled at her. "I'm sorry we can't take you."

"No worries," Susan said as Elsa climbed inside. "I'll see you back in Reine!"

"I hope you know the way," Link said, "because I was totally not looking on the way out here."

"It's not far," she said, waving as the helicopter took off. "We'll just follow the road." The fifty foot woman glanced down at her monster friend, and smiled. "But I'm glad you'll be with me."

* * *

Elsa looked out the window of the helicopter as it thundered through the sky. The land below was green and rich again, and at first glance there was no sign that she had blanketed it in ice and snow for days. But looking more closely, here and there she could see snapped trees, broken roofs, and, worst of all, dead animals lying in the green grass. Her power had nearly destroyed her country. It had nearly destroyed what remained of her family.

But it had also brought them together, she thought, looking over at the prone form of her sister. Anna was lying on the other bench seat, being tended by the doctor. With her sister at her side, she could do it. She could help her country recover from the damage she had caused it.

"Hey, Elsa, are you all right? You're not crying, are you?"

Elsa looked over at her sister, and smiled. "I'll be fine, don't worry. If I am crying, it's tears of joy at having you with me, safe and sound."

"Well, mostly sound," Anna quipped, grimacing a bit. "Apart from my foot."

Looking at her sister, lying injured on the seat, Elsa wondered how she could even begin to apologise. Not just for the broken ankle, which was only tangentially her fault, but for the earlier injury to Anna's arm from her avalanche, and the injury she had inflicted on her when they were both children. And, more than anything, the hurt she had caused by never being there, for always turning away and shutting the door in her sister's face.

"Well, Giny, looks like we've got a bit of a hike ahead of us," Link said, stretching and scratching his armpit. "Monger told me it was about thirty miles back to the city."

"No problem," Susan said. "My walking pace is about twenty-five miles an hour, so it shouldn't take too long. You wanna ride?"

"Nah, the Missing Link's faster than you think," he said, grinning up at the giantess. "How'd you think I captured all those bikini girls back on Coco Beach?"

"Well, come on then!" Susan called. Then she stopped. "Hm. I can't leave these two would-be murderers here. Much as I would like to. They have to stand trial, and be found very, very guilty," she added, scowling at the two men through the chopper window.

"Take them with us," Link said.

"Yes, I know," Susan said. "But… ah, that's an idea."

She picked up the helicopter, which still had her two prisoners trapped inside, and swung it casually over her shoulder, holding it by the tail like a knapsack on a stick. "Oh, you better buckle up tight," she called to the two men. "It's going to be a bouncy ride!"

"You sure that chopper's not too heavy?" Link asked, looking up at Susan, his eyes wide.

She shook her head. "I'd say it's about forty feet long, so a bit unwieldy, but not heavy at all. If I can lift a 747, I can carry this easily."

"Wow…. You really are strong," Link breathed. Then he shook himself. "Enough of that. Okay, which way do we go?"

"Follow the yellow brick road," Susan told him, pointing south along the coast.

"Where? What? I don't see any yellow bricks."

"Huh? Haven't you ever seen The Wizard of Oz?" Susan asked, incredulous, as they set off.

"No. Is there much action and violence in it?"

"Well, some, I guess," Susan allowed. "But probably not the sort you like. No car chases or guns."

"Sounds like crap."

"It's not, but you wouldn't understand."

Chatting happily, they followed the shore for a short while, then the road turned inland, cutting across the peninsula. Susan found it a remarkably pleasant walk. The air was warm, the hills were green, and the sun was shining. Susan paused at the top of the low pass to take in the view. Steep mountains marched away along the valley, nestling small lakes before opening out into a small fjord. Trees formed small woods dotted here and there, and over in the distance she could make out a small village. It was such a contrast to the cold, bleak, snow-covered landscapes she had been surrounded by. For the first time, she began to understand why Arendelle had survived as an independent nation, why people would want to live here, and why tourists would travel to such a remote place. It was a truly beautiful country.

"Not bad," Link admitted when she tried to get him to admire the view with her. "But not nearly tropical enough. In fact I'm still damn chilly, so let's not hang about."

"No, of course," Susan said, setting off again. "Sorry."

After about half an hour, Susan and Link found themselves by a short bridge that crossed the narrow strait to the next island. She hadn't even noticed it on the way over, as both the land and the sea had been white with snow and ice.

"You reckon this can take your weight?" Link called up, grinning cheekily.

Susan made a face at him. "Of course it can! I don't weigh that much!"

"Wait, twelve tons isn't that much? Yeah, I guess not compared to a bus, it isn't," Link quipped, and headed across.

"Yeah, not compared to a bus," Susan repeated quietly to herself. "Great."

Link paused, then looked up at her.

"Hey, you okay, big girl?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Susan said. "It's just that… sometimes I don't like being reminded of my size."

"Huh? Why not? You're the strongest human—heck, the strongest anything—on the planet."

"I guess. Sometimes I do wish I was as elegant and beautiful as Elsa. Look at me! I'm fifty feet tall and weigh over 23,000 pounds! How can I be anything but a big ugly ungainly giantess?"

"Beats me," Link said. "But you're a monster. Monsters ain't cute pretty little things."

"Elsa is."

"Nah, she's not a real monster," Link told her. "Least, not any more. Not now all this is…." He waved in the general direction of the green hills.

Susan shook her head. "Just because she can control it, doesn't mean she's not. It just means she's in control of her power, rather than it being in control of her."

* * *

A short while later they were entering Reine. Susan headed towards the airport, and found MF1 waiting outside on the runway. She realised Monger must have clearly ordered the giant transport flown here the moment the snow was gone. Lowering the helicopter to the ground, she checked that the men inside were still reasonably safe and well secured. At the hangar she found that the huge door was already open, so she stooped under it, then looked around for the others.

She turned as a door banged, and saw Monger stride out from the office, followed by Bob and Cockroach.

"Ginormica! You're back! Good."

"The queen and the princess, sir?"

"Safe and sound. They arrived back about half an hour ago, and the queen—the princess—Anna was taken straight to the hospital. The doctor says she'll be up and about in no time. By which he means a few weeks."

"Great! And Elsa? Is she okay?"

"I'm here," Elsa called up, following the monsters, with Hansen beside her.

"Highness!" Susan exclaimed. "Aren't you at the castle?"

Elsa frowned, and ice crackled around her hands. With a visible effort, she shook it off. "My darling uncle has staged a coup."

"A what?" Susan gasped. "He's what?"

"Effectively. He has declared, in his capacity as official regent, that he is the sole source of authority, and that I am a dangerous renegade who is to be arrested on sight for crimes against Arendelle. I was only able to leave the hospital thanks to Captain Hansen, who told the guards I was his prisoner and he was escorting me to jail."

"The guards wouldn't have believed the duke, surely?"

"I have no illusions. I know how my people must see me. I'm the monster who tried to destroy their country. Who brought an eternal winter."

"Well, it's over now, so it's not eternal," Bob pointed out.

Elsa glanced at the blue blob. "But I could bring it back any time. And that's why they see me as a threat. A monster."

"What's going to happen?" Susan asked.

"Sit down, Ginormica," Monger told her. "I'm getting a crick in my neck."

Susan did so, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Elsa looked at her, and shrugged.

"Well, the problem is, at this point the duke does have the legal right to take over rule of the country."

"But he tried to have Anna killed!" Susan exclaimed. "And Elsa!"

"It's his word against theirs," Monger said.

"No, no, wait, no it isn't!" Susan exclaimed. "General, I brought the men with me! The men who tried to kill Elsa!"

"What? Where?"

"Outside. They're in the chopper."

"Won't they just fly off?" Hansen asked.

Susan shook her head, and Link grinned.

"Nah, Giny here made sure of that. No one's getting out of that chopper without a welding torch," he said smugly. "Or without Susie Q here," he added, winking up at the giantess.

"I'd better go check, just in case," Hansen said, and spoke into his walkie-talkie in Norwegian as he headed out.

"So what's the situation here?" Susan asked. "What about the army? Does Arendelle have an army?"

"A small one, yes," Elsa said with a faint smile.

"The army—what there is of it in Arendelle—is split between the duke and us," Monger explained.

"Right," Elsa said. "Some think the duke's acting beyond his authority, but so far, he's done nothing technically illegal."

"Apart from trying to have you and your sister both killed," Cockroach said.

"Oh, believe me, Doctor, I haven't forgotten about that," she said, looking furious. "But in terms of how he's usurped power, it's completely within the Constitution. Anna is officially queen, and as she is only eighteen, the duke is regent with full executive powers."

"But you're back now. Why aren't you queen?" Bob asked.

"The Storting has to reverse its earlier ruling," Cockroach told him.

"So ask them to do that," Bob said, looking—or trying to look—wise, and not remotely succeeding.

"We have," Monger told him as Hansen came back in.

"Er, we have the helicopter, but… we can't get the prisoners out." He looked up at Susan. "Er…."

She smiled. "Of course. Excuse me, General."

Elsa watched as the giantess got to her feet again, towering far above them all, and left the hangar. Susan was back in a moment, carrying the helicopter, nearly as long as she was tall, lightly in her arms, then laid it down on the floor. Then she proceeded to pull up the blade blocking the pilot's door, the metal shrieking in protest before suddenly snapping in her hands with a tremendous bang.

"Oops," Susan said, giving everyone a wry grin. "I broke it."

"It's a Weselton Oil helicopter," Elsa said dryly. "They can bill me."

"Wait, Elsa's paying for the damage?" Bob asked, looking confused.

"No, Bob," Cockroach explained patiently. "Elsa is being sarcastic."

"Oh! Like when you say how glad you were that I swallowed your experiment last week?"

"Only more so," Cockroach said, rolling his eyes. He glared at the two men slowly climbing out. "Are the prisoners cooperative? I hope not. I'd love to come up with some… devices… that would encourage them to talk."

"Now, Doc, no more torture, remember? That's been outlawed," Monger said. "Pity," he added under his breath.

"Oh, I think these two will talk," Susan said, catching them in her huge hands and holding them ten feet off the floor. "Won't you, boys?"

"Never!" cried one.

"No, I'll talk!" the other said quickly as Susan ever so slightly increased her pressure. "It was the duke! It was!"

"How about you and I discuss this in my office," Monger growled, motioning to the hangar office while Susan let them down again. "Link, escort our prisoners inside."

"With pleasure," the seven and a half foot tall aquatic monster said, baring his long fangs. He grabbed each man and hoisted them under his arms, then followed Monger and Hansen.

"Shall we join them?" Cockroach asked, bowing his head towards Elsa.

"I think we should," she said, taking his proffered arm and heading into the office like she was at a ball.

"Don't mind me, I'll be out here," Susan called, and pouted briefly.

"So will I!" Bob called, following the rest into the office.

Unable to follow them, Susan headed out of the hangar, and stood on the apron, basking in the warm sun. She scratched her head idly, then realised it had been days since she'd had a shower. And would probably be several more, as she doubted there were any giantess-sized ones in Arendelle. Her alien uniform was remarkably clean, however—somehow it repelled dirt and sweat, remaining as fresh and comfortable as when she first wore it. The same did not apply to her hair, however. A shower, sooner rather than later, she decided would be the order of the day.

"Concentrate, Susan, for heaven's sake," she said, shaking her head. Why was she worrying about her hair at a time like this? The fact that the snow was gone did not mean things were back to normal. Elsa still needed to regain her throne. The duke still needed bringing to justice. Susan leaned on the hangar roof and gazed over it, up at the mountains, and wondered how they were going to manage everything.

Then she heard cars pull up, and saw sirens flashing. A dozen men in uniforms—Susan wasn't sure if they were military or police—were getting out of the vehicles and heading towards the hangar.

"Who are you?" Susan called down.

"Stand aside, please. We're on official business."

Susan narrowed her eyes. The men were armed, and several of them were holding them loosely, pointed at the ground but ready to use at any second. She casually stepped in front of the hangar door, blocking it with one huge foot.

"Official business? You want to speak to General Monger?"

The captain shook his head. "No. We are here for Princess Elsa. Do not attempt to prevent us carrying out our mission."

"Uh, prevent you?"

"Step aside! Do not prevent us from arresting the princess!"

"Wait, what? Arrest Elsa? No, you damn will not arrest her!" Susan shouted, rattling the main hangar door with her volume. "Get out of here!"

"I'm sorry, but we have our orders. Now stand aside!"

Susan crouched down, her titanic body looming over the troops. She raised her hand, and glared at them. "If I say you're not arresting Elsa, you're not arresting her! Scram!" she yelled.

The small door at her feet banged open and Monger strode out, followed by Cockroach.

"General! Thank god you're here!" Susan called. "Get these men to back off!"

"What in Sherman's Tank is going on here?" Monger shouted.

"General Monger?" The captain saluted, and held out a document. "We are here under orders from the regent, the Duke of Ramberg, to take Princess Elsa into custody on charges of treason."

"Treason!" Monger exploded.

"She is charged with causing millions of crowns worth of damage to the Arendelle economy."

"Rot! Give me that!" Monger grabbed the document and looked at it. "It's all in gobble-de-gook," he snarled.

"Norwegian, General," Cockroach said, peering over the shorter man's shoulder.

"It could be Martian for all the good it will do you," Monger said, pushing the document back at the captain. "You're not taking her."

"I'm afraid we have orders. This is an internal Arendelle matter, and I must ask you not to interfere."

"You… son of a…" Monger fumed, turning interesting shades of purple.

"General, a word if I may," Cockroach said softly, and whispered rapidly in Monger's ear. Monger's colour rapidly returned to normal, and he smiled at the captain.

"I would love to comply," he said, holding up a hand as Susan opened her mouth. "But you see, the duke has already handed Elsa over to my custody."

"Your custody, General?"

Monger nodded calmly. "Indeed. He requested that the Monster Force take Elsa, otherwise know as the Ice Monster Snødronningen, into protective custody. She is, therefore, under my command as a member of the Monster Force, and in accordance with the 1954 Euro-American Treaty on the Extradition and Containment of Unnatural Life Forms, I am in sole charge of her. So back off, boy!"

The captain turned to his troops, and they talked rapidly in Norwegian. Then he looked at Monger again.

"I'm sorry, General. My orders are explicit. The duke demands you hand over Princess Elsa."

"And I told you, nobody gets to abduct monsters but me!"

The door opened again, and Elsa stepped out. She regarded the troops sent to arrest her with mild curiosity.

"General, I believe I am under your protection. Protect me, then," she said calmly.

"Ginormica, protect the princess," Monger said, nodding up at the giantess.

"You heard the general," Susan said, glaring at the soldiers. "Back off!"

"Allow me, Susan," Elsa said. She stepped in front of the giantess, and raised her hands. The troops backed away rapidly, looking terrified, then Elsa lifted her arms up in a smooth motion, and a sheer wall of ice formed between her and the soldiers. Creaking and groaning, it grew rapidly higher and higher, reaching up as far as Susan's shoulders, some forty feet off the ground.

Elsa lowered her hands, and looked up at Susan. "We should be safe," she said.

Susan glanced over the ice wall at the retreating soldiers. "For a while. Until they come back with flamethrowers," she said grimly.

"In that case," Elsa said, smiling, "we'll find out whether fire beats ice…."

* * *

 **KNOWTES**

It **_Liiiiives_** ！！！

Bet you'd all thought this was a dead fic. Nope, merely sleeping. Very soundly, I admit. Life gets in the way in all sorts of ways. Some good, some bad, some neutral. This story WILL be finished.

The view Susan sees of Lofoten, from the low pass, is an actual view, which I saw thanks to Google Earth. Very scenic indeed. And the route she took is also based on Google Maps. Apart from that, there's absolutely no facts here at all. A complete lack of facts. And that's a fact.

Will the next chapter be up before the heat death of the universe? Let's find out together, shall we?


End file.
